Deleted HSM Scenes Version 2
by general wildcat
Summary: You've seen High School Musical over and over again, but did you ever wonder what Chad and Taylor were doing throughout the movie? You've read one story, now read a new one! Chaylor all the way! Hiatus
1. New Year's Eve

A/N: So this is a story I've been planning on doing for a while. It's a re-written version of my Deleted HSM Scenes. I thought of another way to tell this story and I thought I would share it. That, and there's still a horrible lack of Chaylor stories right now and even though I should be focusing on my Princess and the Frog HSM version, I had to get something else going and spread the love of Chaylor! That, and I don't know where all my roleplaying friends went so there's been major deprivety (is that even a word?) of Chaylor roleplays. So basically there's a ton of reasons for there to be more Chaylor stories! So I will leave the author's note at this and let you guys get to the story. I hope you like the simple start of it and there will be an update when I get the chance. That, and as long as I don't lose power from the hurricane that's supposed to hit. So without further ado, here is Deleted HSM Scenes Version 2.0! (=

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><p><strong>Chapter One: New Year's Eve<strong>

"What's the time check now?"

"Ten o'clock."

Jason Cross moaned hearing his friend Zeke Baylor's answer. It was New Year's Eve and the boys of Albuquerque's East High School basketball team weren't about to take any breaks. For a late winter night, it was fairy warm in New Mexico and for the past few hours Zeke and Jason have been practicing hard and talking about their plans for New Year's Day and how to celebrate, not to mention what they would be doing with their two weeks of vacation.

"What's up?" Zeke raised an eyebrow at his friend.

"I told my folks I'd be home by now. I totally lost track of time." Jason responded.

"That's ok, man. Looks like we'll be finishing our game next week." Zeke said.

"Aw man, don't tell me I'm missing the party already."

Zeke and Jason turned their heads to see their good friend Chad Danforth heading their way. Even in the distance, he wasn't hard to miss with his playful fro.

"Sorry man, I gotta get going." Jason apologized. He hit his friends high fives and then went on his way.

Chad turned to Zeke once Jason left. "You sticking around at all?"

"Only if you are." Zeke answered. "Jay and I were in the middle of a game but it looks like we're calling it quits. It's kinda hard to play a game by yourself."

"I got nowhere to go for a while, I'll play some one on one." He offered. "Besides I can't get much practice in either with Troy still away with his family."

"Sounds cool." Zeke smiled. He high fived Chad and they started their game. "So where were you off to?" he inquired, dribbling the ball around his friend.

"Nowhere, just seeing who was around." Chad responded snatching the ball. "My parents were going crazy with watching their marathons and getting ready to see the ball drop in a few hours, I had to get away from the madness."

Chad shot the ball through the net and Zeke caught it on the rebound. "If you need a break from your folks, you can always come back to my place and celebrate."

"Thanks man. But uh…I wouldn't wanna miss out on wishing my parents a happy new year." Chad said.

Zeke raised an eyebrow as he attempted a three pointer. "So you needed a break from them but you still wanna spend the rest of this year and the first hour of next year with them?"

"So?" Chad shrugged his shoulders.

"I don't know," Zeke said as he cursed in his head for missing the shot, "it just sounds kind of weird to me."

"You forget how weird my family can be sometimes." Chad reminded him as he sped for the ball before Zeke could even move.

"It just sounded like you were thinking something else, I guess. But I could be wrong." He said.

"Sorry to disappoint." Chad said. "So got any plans for the rest of vacation?"

"More basketball practice," he answered as he tried once again to steal the ball, "but I've got a ton of homework to finish, too. And I got a babysitting gig lined up with one of my cousins."

"Bummer." Chad said.

"What about you?" Zeke asked as he watched Chad make another shot.

"Goofing off, sleeping, catching a few games…what else?" he said.

Zeke went over to pick up the ball. "No girlfriend hunting?"

"I don't need to look for a girlfriend." Chad retorted. He paused for a moment before adding, "I mean, why should I? The cheerleaders aren't only fawning over Troy. Why should I have just one girl when I can have three or four?"

"I guess." Zeke said, though a bit uneasily.

Chad rolled his eyes, "You don't get it dude." He glanced at his watch as he dribbled the ball. "Um…you know what, man? On second thought I'm gonna head out. I forgot there's something I gotta take care of."

"Where do you have to go on New Year's Eve?" Zeke inquired.

"You know, just somewhere." Chad said as he tossed Zeke his ball back. "I'll catch you later, man. Happy new year." He then jogged away from the basketball court, leaving Zeke there slightly confused. Once he was far enough, Chad let out a sigh of relief. He, Troy, Zeke, and Jason may have been best friends and told each other plenty of things, but Chad felt as though there were some things that none of them needed to know. Clearly Chad was hiding something from his friends and he was trying not to lead anything on. He headed down the street, looking for a particular house. Chad smiled finding the place he was looking for and walked up to the porch and rang the doorbell. He placed his hands and his pockets and waited for the door to open. When it did, his smile grew.

"Hey there pretty thing."

"Hey yourself." Taylor McKessie smiled back. "You're early. I thought you wouldn't be here until eleven."

"I just couldn't wait to see you." Chad smiled.

"How sweet." Taylor said. She leaned up to kiss him, but Chad stopped her. He glanced behind him, trying to make sure that no one was watching. He got into her house and closed the door behind him. "I'm ready for kissification." He smiled turning back to her.

Taylor leaned up and pecked his lips, but retreated fairly quickly. She sighed as she headed over to the couch. "How long is it going to be like this?"

"What do you mean?" Chad wondered.

"I mean the sneaking around." Taylor answered. "We've been doing this for a while, hiding from and lying to our friends and keeping our relationship a secret."

"You know we can't tell anyone. We shouldn't even be talking to each other let alone date." Chad said.

It was true. At East High School, there was a major separation of the cliques. Jocks were at the top of the food chain; they were the most popular kids at school, and Chad was one of those people. Drama kids were also high up there. The self-proclaimed queen bee of the school along with her brother was co-presidents of the Drama Club and practically ran the school. Taylor was one of the nerds, the kids who loved school, were academically ahead, and could be total teachers' pets. Those students were at the bottom of the social food chain. Ever since elementary school, the jocks had been the ones to pick on the nerds and bring them down. But Chad and Taylor were different. Although they had started out like every other member of their cliques, completely hating each others' guts, out of that hate they found something more. It started with one night locked in a building and although throughout most of that night they had been arguing, along the line a connection developed. The rest is history; the two of them have been together since. Unfortunately, if any of their friends found out that they were dating, then they would be social outcasts. Not only was stepping out of one's clique the worst thing a person could do, but a romance between members of two different cliques was absolutely forbidden.

"I know." She sighed. "It would just be nice to tell my friends."

Chad slipped his arm around her. "At least forbidden romance stuff is pretty hot."

"The sneaking does add some excitement to it." She admitted.

"We just have to keep this going until graduation." He promised. He kissed her cheek and smiled. "Onto happier subjects. What do you have planned for tonight?"

"Well my parents are still away on business and my older sister's celebrating with her friends. So I thought we'd make tonight special." Taylor explained.

"How special?" he smiled.

Taylor grinned and moved onto his lap. "A freezer full of ice cream, movies to keep us awake all night, maybe a few games…"

"And kissing?" Chad asked hopefully.

Taylor smiled. "Plenty."

"Sounds like a dream come true." He smiled.

"I know it is." Taylor said. She looked at the wall clock, then back at Chad. "We'd better get up to my room."

Chad raised an eyebrow, obviously intrigued. "What's in your room?"

"Only the best view of the city a girl can have." She answered. "It'll be a perfect place to watch all the fireworks go off."

"Let's do it." Chad agreed. They rose from the couch and went upstairs to Taylor's room. The couple climbed onto her bed and then sat on the windowsill, taking in the view of Albuquerque. Taylor sat first and Chad sat beside her. Taylor rested her head on Chad's shoulder as the clocks counted down the moments until the new year.

"So have you made any new year's resolutions?" she wondered.

"Only to show everyone that Troy's not the only Wildcat at school who's a hoops master. At the end of this year, his name isn't gonna be the only one the school's gonna be cheering." Chad said.

"Well you know I'll always be cheering for you." Taylor smiled.

"I know." Chad grinned. "It'd just be nice to hear everyone, too. What about your resolution?"

"The same as last year. Just for everyone to know about us and we can stop lying and hiding." She told him.

Chad wasn't sure how to respond to that. He had considered telling his friends about them, but it was just too risky. Zeke had almost found out tonight with random questions and Chad didn't how he or anyone else would handle it, especially Troy. His pride wasn't helping too much either; he just didn't want his reputation to be ruined because he was dating a nerd who happened to be smart, fun, cute, and someone he really, really liked.

"I don't know if that's going to come true this year." He admitted uneasily.

"I know." She nodded. "But it will someday."

"Yeah." Chad nodded as he looked up at the sky. The clock struck midnight and fireworks went off celebrating the new year. Everyone else may have been happy, but for Chad and Taylor it just meant they were fine hiding their relationship for now and it could only be a matter of time before their friends found out. And even though Chad was trying to hide how much he wanted everyone to know, he knew Taylor wanted this more than anything, no matter what anyone thought. He looked at his girlfriend lovingly as they shared another kiss.

"Someday."

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><p>Did you like it? I hope you did. I know it's a little on the short side, but I didn't want to voerdo it either. After all there's only so much a person could put in for a night of new year's. Anyway, yes this is the other version of the deleted scenes, not where Chad and Taylor fight and try to rip each other apart, but they're secretly dating! :O Anyone else see that coming? They totally had that conncetion in the movie, so there's a chance that they were dating, I just know it! Wow I am falling really short of what to type in these author's notes now. I blame My Little Pony for that. DX So now it's ice cream and My Little Pony time! If you guys wish to review, feel free too because I love hearing your opinions and I also love knowing that my stories are being enjoyed, which I hope they are! c: So with that I will leave you for the night and wish you a happy Saturday! Oh yeah...and for any of you who are supposed to be getting some sort of taste of this Hurricane Irene (like me), I think it's supposed to get really wet outside so stay inside and don't lose power. So until my next fanfic update, good night peoples! =3<p> 


	2. Before Get'cha Head in the Game

**Disclaimer:** I do not own HSM, any of the characters, or anything to do with the movies.

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><p><strong>Chapter Two: Before Get'cha Head in the Game<strong>

"I can't believe Darbus got us busted for detention." Chad sighed as he and Troy left class.

"Hey, you're the one who had to go and open your mouth." Troy pointed out. "If you didn't then I'd be the only one stuck in detention, not you. And you know how my dad is; he's gonna be steamed when he finds out I've got detention but he'll be even more angry when he finds out his two best players are stuck there. And cause of Darbus who's like his arch nemesis."

"It's a small price to pay, I guess. At least you won't be there alone working for the warden. Besides it's not like I haven't gotten detention before." He replied.

"You mean like for missing class?" Troy raised an eyebrow. "Why do you ditch half the time anyway?"

"Uh…no reason." Chad lied. But of course there was a reason. He couldn't be with Taylor around his friends let alone talk about her so he had to sneak around everywhere. Chad hated the fact that he couldn't show off his beautiful smart girlfriend to his teammates. It was times like those that made Chad consider Taylor's idea of coming clean to everyone and not hiding their relationship anymore. Then no one would believe them and life would be a living heck for the both of them. Chad couldn't risk that, be it his social life or Taylor's. Maybe it was more a pride thing; in Chad's eyes, being one of the basketball team's stars, he had so much more to lose than Taylor who was just some nerd to everyone else. But as long as he got to see her and no one caught them, Chad didn't care how much trouble he got into.

"If you say so." Troy said doubtfully. He glanced at his watch, "I gotta head to my locker. See you at practice?"

"Yeah, I'll be there in ten minutes." Chad nodded. He watched Troy leave and then glanced around. There were plenty of people walking past him but none of them were really paying attention. Chad headed in the opposite direction, making his way towards Taylor's locker. If he had ten minutes to kill for basketball practice then that should give him a little bit of time with her. He walked past her locker and noticed she hadn't arrived yet. Leaning up against the wall, Chad took out a piece of paper and wrote a note.

_Meet me at your place. Can't wait to see you._

_-You know who ;)_

Chad smiled at the note and then made sure no one was looking. Once he was sure no one would get suspicious, he slipped the note into Taylor's locker. Spotting her from the corner of his eye, he smiled and then wined to her as he walked by. Taylor smiled lightly and raised an eyebrow, knowing the curly-haired boy had something planned. In the meantime, Chad quietly slipped into one of the janitor's closets. It was dark and cramped but it was the only place that he and Taylor were sure they wouldn't get caught. He leaned up against the wall and patiently waited for Taylor to arrive. He smiled when he saw her sneak in, devoid of her backpack or books. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close.

"Hey pretty thing."

Taylor giggled, "Someone must be asking for trouble if he's in here instead of getting ready for basketball practice."

"The guys won't miss me for five minutes. Besides I wanted to see you." He said with a smile.

"That's sweet." She responded slipping her arms around his neck. "But you know we can't do much with five minutes. And what if one of the janitors come?"

"They haven't found us in there yet, have they?" he asked slyly.

"No," she admitted.

"Then let's not worry about it. We can just stay in here and kiss a little." Chad suggested.

"That does sound good." She smiled.

"I know it does." He nodded before kissing her. The two of them exchanged a few gentle kisses; though it was only a few minutes, when the two of them were together it felt like they could be in each others' arms and hours would pass by. They would get lost in thoughts about each other and not want to be anywhere else. Yet as the sensible one, Taylor reluctantly pulled away and looked at him with her big brown eyes.

"You should get to practice. You don't want the guys to get suspicious."

"And I know you don't wanna miss class." Chad sighed.

Taylor could detect the disappointment in his voice. "I'd love to stay in here all day, too, but you know we can't."

Chad looked at her puzzled. "But you're the one who always wants us to be out about our sneaking around. This is the part where you say it'd be best if we did tell everyone about us."

"It would be," she confessed, "but this has been going on for almost three years. As much as I'd love our friends to know about us, I know it's not going to happen. So it's ok."

"Are you sure?" he asked. Taylor would be lying if she said it was ok. Part of her wanted to keep pursuing it. She wanted to fight for their relationship and their friends' approval, not keep it in the closet – literally. She wouldn't even care if her friends were against it or not; Chad was worth it. There were times when she contemplated if he thought what they had was worth fighting for, too. Those thoughts would always be put to rest when he would take her in his arms and hold her as if he'd never let go. The idea of revealing their relationship was something that Taylor had always brought up, but she hated arguing with Chad over it.

"I'm sure." She nodded. She looked around the dark closet and then back at Chad. "We should get going. I've got to get back to class and you've got basketball practice." Chad could sense in her voice that she wasn't happy. Odds were that she was still thinking about the sneaking. As exciting as a forbidden romance was, Chad had sometimes grown tired of it as well. But there was still that thought of the negativity they'd receive over their relationship. Chad could imagine their friends doing whatever they could to tear them apart from each other and he couldn't stand the thought. He wanted to be with Taylor and no one could ever change his mind. Taylor gave him a kiss on the cheek and she turned to the door, ready to leave. Not wanting to let her go, Chad reached out to her and lightly took her hand. He turned her around to him and gently pulled her close so they were right up against each other. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her softly yet passionately, wanting to reassure her of where his feelings lay and he cared about her and what she wanted to say whether he agreed with it or not. They stayed close together for another minute until they slowly broke away. Taylor smiled at Chad and he smiled back.

"So what are you doing after detention?" she asked.

"Walking you home." He smiled. "The long way where no one can see us and we'll have all the privacy we want."

"Sound perfect. I'll see you in detention." Taylor replied with a smile. She turned and reached out to the doorknob, though she glanced back to Chad with a teasing grin. "And Danforth, don't think about pulling me into a closet again. I wouldn't want to be contaminated with lunkhead syndrome."

Chad folded his arms, "So long as you don't try to make any moves on me, McKessie, cause you're so out of your league."

Taylor winked to Chad. She turned the doorknob and exited the closet. Chad smiled as he watched her leave. He remained in the closet a moment longer, then left for basketball practice. He ran down the hall and made his way to the gym, hoping that he hadn't arrived later than he said he would. When he got into the locker room he saw Troy sighing with relief when he spotted his friend. Troy ran over Chad; he looked like he'd been looking all over for him.

"Dude where were you? You said ten minutes."

"Sorry man, I guess I lost track of time or something." Chad shrugged his shoulders. He walked to his locker and opened it, but Troy looked at him in disbelief.

"You? Lose track of time? In school? Before basketball practice?" He looked at Chad skeptically. "You're never late for anything to do with basketball. Are you sick or something?"

Chad shook his head and changed into his jersey. "I said I was sorry." He repeated. "Are we gonna stand around here playing Guess Where Chad Went or are we gonna shoot some hoops?"

"Shoot some hoops." Troy answered. He still had his doubts about where Chad was, but he wasn't going to let that distract him from practice. They had a huge game coming up and they had to focus. Troy only wished he could. He patted Chad's shoulder and grabbed a basketball, following him out onto the court. "So anyway I wanted to talk to you about something. It's about the school musical…"

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><p>Wow I haven't updated in a long time! I'm sorry, I didn't mean for the update to wait this long. I mean I had some free time but in between school and working on my senior thesis project I guess I was just lazy. I would have typed more of this at school but I've only had my new laptop for a few weeks and I just recently got Microsoft Word for it so aside from writing a random chapter about something to do with Chaylor and then failing miserably at attempting to white a short My Little Pony fanfic I guess I haven't focused on updating this story. I haven't updated PatF yet either but hopefully that will change at some point during this month. I actually did attempt to write this chapter one point at home, though, but it just didn't turn out the way I wanted it to and it felt like it was dragging out. I think writing it this way turned out better, at least. So I know this one wasn't very long but for those of you reading I hope you enjoyed it and I would also like to say thank you to the people who reviewed my first chapter and have waited so patiently for this one. Thank you to pawsrox, teacherspet7910, MyLittleBird, and cornice chaylor girl! I look forward to reading all the other updated Chaylor stories out there and I hope I'll find time to do another chapter of something soon! Have a great night everyone! (=<p> 


	3. After Detention

Disclaimer: I do not own High School Musical

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><p><strong>Chapter Three: After Detention<strong>

"Oh yeah…that feels so good, babe," Chad moaned lightly. He and Taylor were sitting under the bleachers by the football field and track behind East High; he had his back leaned up against her while she massaged his back and placed gentle kisses on the crook of his neck. Despite the fact that Chad had been energized during basketball practice, even the best athletes at East High sometimes ran out of steam. He was near exhausted by the time he and Taylor met up once detention was over so the two of them snuck under the bleachers and were having their alone time there.

"Feel better?" Taylor asked with a smile in between kisses.

"Oh yeah," Chad sighed. "Your lips are magic."

"Are they now?" she asked.

"And you're such an enchantress." He added.

Taylor giggled and pulled away. "Alright, where did you get a line like that? Have you been watching your mom's romance movies again?"

"What? No," Chad shook his head. "I just…happened to overhear one of her movies while I stayed up late playing a video game last night."

"Right. Sure you did," she laughed.

Chad turned to her, "You don't believe me?"

"Not really, no," she replied.

Chad grinned. "We'll just see about that." He playfully tackled her to the ground and tickled her. Taylor laughed and tried to push him off but Chad didn't budge and instead surprised her with a kiss. Taylor kissed him back and wrapped her arms around him, running her fingers through his hair. She fell back onto the grass and Chad lay on top of her. He slid his arms underneath her and ran his hands across her back. They broke away when they needed air and Chad rested his forehead against Taylor's.

Taylor smiled up at him. "Feel better?"

"Tons," he said. "What am I gonna do when you start your thingy?"

"Scholastic Decathlon," she corrected with a giggle. "Three years and you still can't get it right."

"Hey at least I don't call it your nerd group," he teased, "…anymore."

Taylor nudged him, "You're such a lunkhead."

"But I'm your lunkhead," he replied with a cocky grin.

"Yes you are," she pecked his lips. "But you may not have to worry about my 'thingy' this year."

Chad raised an eyebrow. "Really? Should I be jealous?"

"Maybe," she said innocently. Taylor smiled and looked at his questioning look. She giggled and shook her head. "No. We could go a lot further this year instead of getting knocked out in the first few weeks. That new girl is going to join the decathlon. She's brilliant."

"Not more brilliant than you," he replied.

"Still, it never hurts to have an extra mind," she said. "This could be it, Chad, this could be our year. You'll win the championship from West High and I'll beat them at academics."

Chad's face fell. "Sounds great," he said with an obvious tone of disappointment in his voice. He got up off of Taylor and sat down next to her, pulling his knees to his chest.

Taylor sat up and looked at her boyfriend with mixed emotions. "Didn't realize you enjoyed watching me fail. I support you with basketball and track but you can't support my academia?"

"No, of course not. That couldn't be further from the truth," Chad responded.

"So what, then?" she questioned. "If your winning this season more important than mine?"

"That's not what I was trying to say," he replied turning to her.

"Amuse me," she said. "What were you trying to say?"

"Just that it means we spend less time together," Chad answered. "We barely have any as it is."

"Because we sneak around, we already knew that," she said. "And we've already established that it's not going to change any time soon."

"But I didn't mean to make it sound like it was a bad thing," he replied. "I'm proud of you, Tay, I really am."

She folded her arms and muttered, "You sure have a strange way of showing it."

The two looked away from each other and sat in a stiff, awkward silence. The silence became interrupted moments later when Chad's phone rang. He took it out from his jeans pocket and saw Troy's name on the caller ID. He briefly glanced at Taylor, who was trying to pay little attention to Chad and give him the cold shoulder, and then he looked back at his phone. Chad sighed and answered it, attempting to sound like nothing was going on.

"Hey man. What's up?"

"Yo Chad, you home? You ditched pretty fast after practice," Troy said on the other end.

"Just tired," Chad shook his head. "You know, detention with Warden Darbus and then practice like five seconds later."

"Sure," Troy replied, though his tone revealed a bit of doubt and sarcasm. "So does that mean you're too whipped to stop by? Dad…rather, Coach, wants to run some drills. Wanna join?"

Chad hesitated for a moment. He looked over at Taylor. She glanced at him briefly and shook her head, though it was unclear if she was still giving him the cold shoulder or overheard Troy's end and assumed Chad would want to play more basketball. Taylor picked up her jacket and stood up, beginning to put it back on and grab her books. Chad's silence continued and kept his eyes on Taylor.

"Chad?" Troy asked.

His friend's voice snapped Chad out of his trance; Chad shook his head and opened his mouth to speak, but didn't once take his eyes off Taylor. "Sounds great man. But, uh…now's not good for me. I'm…I'm kinda with someone."

Overhearing that, Taylor picked up her head and looked at Chad confused.

Troy's voice hinted at some confusion as well. "Seriously?"

Chad nodded, his eyes still on his girlfriend. "Seriously."

"Um…alright then. Way to go man. Guess I'll see you tomorrow then," Troy said.

"Sounds good," Chad responded before hanging up.

Taylor shrugged her shoulder and shook her head. "Why'd you do that?"

"Cause I wanna hang out with you," Chad answered.

"Even if we're fighting?" she inquired.

"Well you are kinda cute and feisty when you fight," he admitted.

Taylor bit her tongue, trying to hide a smile. "So what are you trying to say?"

"I guess…" he scratched his head, "…I guess that if we see each other a little less cause we're too busy kicking butt then I'd rather spend that time arguing than not seeing you at all." He waited for a response from Taylor, but her expression was difficult for him to read. "…Do you still wanna leave?"

Taylor placed her books back down and folded her arms. She approached Chad and looked up at him with a quirked eyebrow. "If I do leave and you don't go play basketball with Troy then what do you do?"

Chad thought for a minute and then shrugged his shoulders. "Pretend you're here?"

"Not good enough," she answered.

Chad raised an eyebrow and smiled. "So it'd be better if you were here?"

"I don't know…maybe," Taylor said.

"Well I did just choose you over Troy," he stated, "what else can I do?"

"You did. And I know you do care," she replied. She added with a teasing smile, "You just happen to have a big mouth."

"But it's all the better to kiss you with," Chad smiled.

"So then," Taylor said trying to change the subject, "the Decathlon then? You're alright with us actually having a chance of winning this year?"

"Of course I am," he said.

It was true that sometimes the fights Chad and Taylor had could get intense; it was usually because of their stubbornness and hot-headedness. But it was after every one of those fights that they were reminded how they felt about each other and that it brought them closer together. After all, there wasn't any couple that could go without fighting. If there was then they wouldn't be happy and everything would be kept bottled up inside. While Chad and Taylor did have a physical and emotional connection, it was also their heated verbal disputes that ignited a spark in them. It was at times like this that Taylor often felt reassured of Chad's feelings for her; if he didn't care for her so much then he wouldn't fight her so hard when they butted heads. Taylor smiled up at Chad and kissed his cheek.

"Maybe we can work something out," she said.

Chad smiled. "How does my place sound?" he suggested. "My parents are working late tonight. We can order a pizza, chill on the couch, maybe cuddle on my bed, I know you like that."

Taylor innocently smiled and raised an eyebrow. She spun around and gathered her books. She walked back over to Chad and slipped her hand in his, intertwining their fingers together. She looked up at him and they exchanged smiles. "Let's go."

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><p>So after a ton of homework in both graphic design and writing, constant distractions at home and at school, TV, video games, family emergencies, and a bunch of other stuff that I'm probably forgetting, I finally got another chapter up! You know...while eating dinner and watching TV for like a bunch of hours the day after Thanksgiving. o_o By the way, how was everyone's Thanksigivng? Really awesome, I hope. With lots and lots of food! c: Anyway I do plan to update this and Princess and the Frog soon. There's only a couple of weeks left in the semester and I just have to get all my work done and get an internship for next semester, which means most likely even less time for updating then. Which doesn't help so much cause I got a few ideas I definitely wanna make stories out of. So for everyone who's reviewed and kept up with this story, I want to thank you guys for being so patient and sticking through with this and my other fanfics. And for all you Chaylor writers out there, can't wait for your updates either! ^^ By the way, if I don't get any other updates on any fanfics before ChristmasHannukah...please feel free to send me an angry message. Not too angry though, please, just make sure you remind me I gave permission for it to be angry because I will forget it by tomorrow. Oh wait, it is tomorrow cause it's after midnight already...well I'll still forget it by today. So again, thank you for all your reading/reviews/support/fellow Chaylor stories and everyone have a fabulous weekend! (=


	4. During What I've Been Looking For

At long last an update to this story! I know it's been a while, but senior year in college is no cakewalk. 15 credits with an internship, majoring in art and minoring in English... If anyone ever tells you majoring in art is easy, it's not. No major is ever easy! That being said I'm officially a graduate now, I've got job hunting to do and so until I can secure a full time job I will...or at least should be...updating more than I have been in the past semester. Once again, I do not own High School Musical or its characters and I hope you enjoy this chapter!

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><p><strong>Chapter Four: During What I've Been Looking For<strong>

"Where did he go?" Chad asked himself. He had been wandering the halls of East High for nearly ten minutes during free period and had seen no sight of Troy. Last he saw him was after homeroom and Troy said he was catching up on homework. Chad had a hard time believing him but he was starting to doubt himself now; Troy ran off in such a hurry that for all Chad knew, Troy could be doing homework. It still sounded unlikely, though. Chad shook his head and ran his fingers through his hair. "Troy? Yo Hoops, where are you?" he called again. Not looking where he was going, Chad bumped into someone. The two of them as well as any books and papers she was carrying splattered to the ground. Chad sat on his knees, "Sorry bout that, I wasn't looking where I was…." That was when he looked up, only to see that the person he had bumped into was Taylor. They stared at each other wide eyed for a moment and of course, as there were other students in the hallway, people were waiting to see what kind of argument would enlist from this. "I…I mean…watch where you're going, McKessie. Geez, could you be any clumsier? No wonder you can't get a boyfriend!"

Taylor scoffed and began gathering her books, "Excuse me Lunkhead, but you bumped into me first. I'm surprised you can actually survive an inning of basketball with those feet."

"That's baseball, nerd," Chad rolled his eyes. "Not much of a nerd after all are you?"

"Well you're not much of a basketball player either are you? Not if you're always second best to Troy," Taylor retorted.

"Take that back!" Chad sneered.

"Or else what?" she argued.

"Alright, alright, that's enough!" Ms. Darbus declared as she entered the hallway dramatically. The group of students immediately scattered, leaving only Chad and Taylor with the drama teacher. "What is going on in here?"

"She started it! She wasn't looking where she was going-"

"It's not my fault this Lunkhead can't go without tripping over his two left feet-"

"She doesn't know what she's talking about-"

"He thinks he owns the hallway just because of his status-"

"At least my status means more. Nerds are nothing-"

"Nothing more than a bunch of lunkheads parading around like they own the school-"

"Enough!" Ms. Darbus yelled. "Both of you, my classroom, now. Consider yourselves lucky you're not being given detention this afternoon. And you will report once again to my classroom for lunch detention. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, Ms. Darbus," the two answered sullenly.

Ms. Darbus pointed in the direction of the classroom and Chad and Taylor made their way there with their heads hung down. They entered the classroom down the hall. Taylor took a seat at her desk and Chad peeked out the door to make sure no one was behind them. He closed the door behind him and then sat at his desk in front of Taylor's. He turned to her and smirked playfully.

"An inning of basketball? Clever."

Taylor smiled and shrugged her shoulders. "It's a gift. You were a bit contradictory with your nerd comments. First I'm a nerd and then I'm not much of a nerd?"

"Hey I had to think of something fast. You were coming up with such great comebacks," he replied. He then raised an eyebrow, "Do you really think I'm second best to Troy?"

"Not in a million years," Taylor shook her head. She slid her hand over his, "At the very least he's second best to you."

"Wow, at least? So for all I know he could be in tenth place behind me?" Chad asked hopefully.

Taylor giggled, "Let's not get ahead of ourselves. By the way, where is Troy?"

Chad shrugged. "Beats me. He said he was skipping on basketball practice to catch up on homework but I lost him. Now I'm stuck missing practice, too."

"Because of me?" Taylor asked.

"No! Well…kinda," Chad admitted. He held her hand, "But sometimes I'd much rather spend my time with you than at basketball practice."

"Wow, sometimes?" Taylor raised an eyebrow.

Chad chuckled, "Don't get sarcastic with me. I'm just saying I like playing basketball and I like having guy time. Besides Troy's acting all weird for some reason. Why would I hang around my best friend who I've known forever that's not acting like himself when I could be with my awesome girlfriend?"

Taylor shushed him. "Easy with the g word, you want people to get suspicious?"

"So I take it you're cool with not wanting people to know?"

"I've pretty much accepted the fact that we have no choice but to keep this secret."

"Are you ok with that?"

"Not really. But I have to be. However long we're together for, we have to keep it up as long as we're here. I know how much your boys mean to you."

Chad sighed. "It's not just about me. You know that. Yeah, the whole school finding out about us would pretty much kill me here forever. And the guys would never let me hear the end of it. But what about your friends? They all think we're a bunch of lunkheads don't they? They'll tear your head off just for checking one of us out. Maybe it wouldn't be as bad as with me or maybe it'd be worse, I don't know. But I'm not stupid enough to risk it for the both of us."

Taylor shook her head. She hated it when Chad talked that way. As sweet as it may have sounded, it didn't stop the guilt. It hurt her inside because she did want people to know about them. Sure it was fun sneaking around sometimes but at least if people knew about them then perhaps hey could be more accepting of a change in the status quo. They wouldn't have to pretend to hate each other and everyone could see how much they cared for and loved each other. Chad was so accepting of her feelings against their secrecy and he's gone so far as to almost tell his friends about them in the past. Ultimately, however, it was too big a risk. Taylor knew that. She knew that anything Chad said or did about them was for them and that was why she felt so guilty about wanting to go against him. She got out of her seat and walked over to the windows. She folded her arms across her chest and stared outside.

Chad paused and rubbed the back of his head. "I should shut up shouldn't I?"

Taylor shook her head.

Chad walked over to Taylor. He placed a hand on her shoulder and thought for a minute. Then he smiled and wrapped his arms around her. "Hey…Darbus isn't here. And we still got a half-hour left of being stuck in here. How bout we have a little fun?"

Taylor raised an eyebrow but didn't turn to him. "I'm listening."

"Everyone else is in class," Chad proposed, "when else are we gonna get to walk around school together? Let's explore a little."

"What about getting caught?" she asked.

"No one's gonna see us," Chad replied.

"I don't mean us getting caught," Taylor said. "I meant Ms. Darbus catching us."

"What do we have to lose? We've already got lunch detention," Chad said. "Besides I can't kiss you if you're in here and I'm not."

Taylor faced him, "Ok now you're just trying to butter me up."

"Maybe…" Chad said innocently, "is it working?"

Taylor thought for a minute before smiling. "Why don't we go exploring and find out?"

The two of them left the drama room and headed down the hall. They walked hand in hand and although there was some laughing, there didn't seem to be anyone around to catch them. There were no teachers to catch them without a hall pass or any students to point fingers and whisper. They still had fifteen minutes left before the end of free period when they walked by the auditorium. They didn't bother to walk inside, not with musical auditions going on. The two of them giggled as they heard some horrible auditions.

"Can you believe these people?" Chad laughed. "We can sing better than them and we're not in their stupid drama club."

"I can't believe how generous Ms. Darbus is being with their feelings," Taylor added. "They're horribly off key."

"Probably won't be too long before the Ice Princess and her brother take over," Chad said. "Let's get outta here."

They took hands and walked away from the auditorium. They ended up sitting across the hall, not too far from the auditorium. Chad leaned back on the wall and Taylor rested her head on his shoulder.

"Ok, so exploring East High during the day wasn't as cool as it sounded in my head," Chad admitted.

"It was a bit lackluster," Taylor confessed, "but at least we were bored together."

"Well thanks for pretty much telling me I'm boring," Chad joked.

"Boring, maybe. But at least you're cute while you're being boring," she responded. She ran her fingers through his hair and kissed his cheek.

"I try," Chad answered less-than-modestly. He paused when soft piano playing was heard through the hall. He glanced at Taylor, "Hear that?"

"I thought no one would dare audition after Sharpay and Ryan," she replied.

"It's nice," he commented. They listened to the piano for another moment. Chad smiled and looked at Taylor and then the next thing he knew he was singing softly with the music.

_It's hard to believe_

_That I couldn't see_

_You were always there beside me_

Taylor smiled and began singing along with him, their voices matching in perfect harmony.

_Thought I was alone_

_With no one to hold_

_But you were always right beside me_

Their voices then joined together. They sang softly; not too loud so anyone nearby would catch them. But they were loud enough that they could hear each other, that they could hear how perfectly they sounded together and not even knowing that Troy and Gabriella were singing the exact same song.

_This feeling's like no other_

_I want you to know_

_That I never had someone_

_Who knows me like you do_

_The way you do_

_And I never had someone_

_As good for me as you_

_No one like you_

_So lonely before_

_I finally found_

_What I've been looking for_

Taylor looked at Chad and smiled. "You're right. We do sing better than them."

"Maybe we should try out for the musical," Chad joked.

"Oh your mom would love that," she mused.

"Please, no," Chad groaned. "After all those times she took me to see Wicked and Phantom of the Opera I don't think I could ever go on stage and sing."

"You never know," she replied.

"Not unless I'm singing with you. It makes it more worth while," he said.

Taylor laughed and shook her head. "Please, I am not performance material."

"I think so," he replied. "I'd pay big bucks to see you on stage."

"Excuse me, but you'd be getting in for free!" she argued.

"Aw, I'm so special," Chad chuckled.

Taylor nudged him playfully and smiled. Chad shook his head and slipped his arm around each other. They leaned in closer to each other, ready to kiss, but the bell interrupted them.

"Dang," Chad muttered.

Taylor got off the bench and pulled Chad up. "Come on. Let's get back to the room before we get in trouble."

"At least we'll have lunch together for once," he stated.

"I doubt things will stay that way for long," Taylor replied. "Nothing's going to change around here any time soon."

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><p>Four chapters down...and still a while to go. I know, I have to update Princess and the Frog as well. That one might take a little longer considering it involves going back and forth between watching the scene in the movie and typing pretty much at the same time. Luckily this update is complete and for those of you who are aware of my other fanfics, I do still have Classic Disney Meets New Disney and I have added a new musical oneshot there as well. I know it's not much and these update I posted are not incredibly wrong but I hope it satisfies all Chaylor lovers for the time being. If anyone is still out there please let me know what you think...you know, about the chapter, the story, if I should continue writing...anything you want, really. Sometimes it's just nice to know that there's people out there. ^^; As for all other Chaylor writers I look forward to continue reading your fanfics as well. :) For everyone who has already started their summer vacation, please enjoy and may this be the start of a happy season! As for others like myself who have just graduated and are going in the real world...good luck, fellow graduates! Have an awesome wee everyone and I will be back! :3<p> 


	5. Before Stick to the Status Quo

Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing!

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><p><strong> Chapter Five: Before Stick to the Status Quo<strong>

"CALLBACKS?"

The scream pierced through the hallways of East High the next morning as if Godzilla were attacking and devouring everyone in sight. It was a screech loud enough to shatter glass. It was a screech of pure horror. It was a screech…of Sharpay. It was a sound the students of East High were too familiar with, for no one dared to mess with the Queen Bee. If they did anything to upset her then her scream would be their price.

Chad, Jason and Zeke had been sitting at the fountain in front of East High waiting for Troy when they heard the Ice Princess. They exchanged looks, wondering what could have possibly upset Sharpay this time.

"Did you guys hear that?" Jason asked.

"Dude, I think they heard it down in Alaska," Chad responded.

"Alaska's up north, lunkhead," Taylor scoffed, walking past the boys and into the school. "Learn to read a map for once in your life."

"Says you!" Chad called back angrily.

"Man, is that the best you got?" Zeke asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Nah man, just early," he answered. "Can't stand her can you?"

"Nope," Zeke shook his head.

"Oh yeah. Me either," Chad agreed albeit hesitantly.

"Or Sharpay," Jason said.

"Can't stand that Ice Princess," Chad added.

"Oh yeah. Me either," Zeke agreed as hesitantly as Chad a moment ago.

"Think we should go see what's up?" Jason wondered.

"It's probably the same thing it was the other day. Broke a nail," Chad laughed.

"Guess we should just hang out and wait for Troy then. Maybe he can calm her down," Jason said.

"What? Guys we can't…" Zeke started only to have his friends stare at him. He cleared his throat and rubbed his head. "I mean…it could be something big this time. We'd better check it out."

"Do we have to?" Jason moaned.

"Yeah, dude," Chad agreed. "If I didn't know any better I'd say you had a crush on the Ice Princess."

"What? Who, me? Yeah right! No way. Not a chance. Don't have any idea what you're talking about. I can't stand her," Zeke answered quickly.

Chad and Jason exchanged glances with each other before looking back at Zeke. While Chad still appeared skeptical Jason shrugged it off.

"Alright, let's go check it out."

"What about Hoops?" Chad asked.

"We'll meet up with him in homeroom," Zeke replied. He and Jason headed inside.

Chad sighed and shook his head. He glanced around for Toy, and then reluctantly followed his friends. When he walked inside there was a large crowd gathering around Sharpay and Ryan. The twins were standing in front of the bulletin board for the drama club. Ryan looked like he was trying to keep a cool exterior but Sharpay was plain freaked out. Chad attempted to make it through the crowd with Jason and Zeke, only able to catch the end of their conversation, as they got closer.

"Is this some kind of joke?" Sharpay demanded. "They didn't even audition!"

Audition? Audition for what? The spring musical? Who in their right mind would even dare to go up against the Evans twins? Certainly no one at East High was dumb enough to do something like that. But obviously, someone has if it was going to turn into a battle between them and Ryan and Sharpay for the lead roles.

"Maybe we're being Punk'd!" Ryan gasped.

"What?" Sharpay looked at him in disbelief.

"Maybe we're being filmed right now! Maybe we'll get to meet Ashton!" Ryan exclaimed.

Sharpay pushed Ryan off of her but giggles and chuckled erupted from the small crowd. As annoying as Ryan and Sharpay were, sometimes Ryan's cluelessness and love of Ashton Kutcher made them all the more entertaining. Deciding to go along with it, Chad walked up to them and looked over their shoulders at the bulletin board.

"What's the matter, a couple of poodles bear you out or something?" Chad joked. At least, it was funny. Until he saw the sheet. It was no wonder Sharpay was so horrified. Chad had never seen anything like it in his entire life. This had to be some sort of alternate dimension. There was no way he was reading what he thought he was reading. His eyes widened and his jaw dropped.

_Callback for roles of Arnold and Minnie_

_Next Thursday at 3:30 p.m._

_Ryan and Sharpay Evans_

_Gabriella Montez and Troy Bolton_

Chad looked back and forth between Ryan and Sharpay. Their faces said it all; this was not a joke. Rushing away form them, Chad made his way down the hall. He knew there was something funny about Troy talking to him about auditioning for the musical. Extra credit, Chad's butt. Troy had never even said a word about musical before, and if he ever thought about it then it was only because of Sharpay. Sure she was cute and yes everyone knew she had a major crush on Troy, but that sure didn't make him want to audition before. Why the sudden change now? But Chad already knew the answer. And there was only one person he could talk to about that.

"What did your nerd friend do to Hoops?"

He stood in front of Taylor's locker, obviously not happy, as she was putting books into her backpack. She looked at him curiously and raised an eyebrow. The hall surrounding her locker was near deserted and anyone who was walking by was more concerned about rushing towards the scene of the crime than what kind of fight Chad and Taylor were going to get into. Everyone wanted to know what was going on with Sharpay. Quite frankly, Taylor hadn't bothered to stick around long enough to find out. She had assumed it had something to do with clothes or shoes. And odds were that if it were anything bigger than that then the school would be passing on the gossip long before lunch.

"What are you talking about?" she asked. Taylor was obviously thrown for a loop as to why Chad was so angry. Normally this kind of face would only be put on in front of a crowd to hide their feelings. There was no one around now to put on a show for, so what was he blaming her for?

"Oh c'mon, you can't tell me you don't know," Chad rolled his eyes.

"Ok, I don't know," Taylor answered though she couldn't help but mutter "for once" to herself.

"Troy and Gabriella? Going against Sharpay and Ryan for some dumb leads in a musical?" Chad complained.

"They're doing what?" Taylor gasped.

"They got some callback for the lame musical on Friday!" Chad responded. "Troy would've never auditioned if your friend didn't put him up to this. What did she do to brainwash him? We got a championship game to think about! Troy can't be prancing around on stage in leotards looking like a lunatic! Why did you let Gabriella talk him into it?"

"You have got to be kidding me. You really think I knew about this?" she questioned.

"Well you sure been hanging around her a lot, I'm sure she told you all about how she's gonna brainwash Troy and make him a drama geek instead of a ball player," Chad said.

"Gabriella isn't even interested in musicals or joining Sharpay's and Ryan's little group."

"You wanna bet? Her name's right there on that list. So's Troy's."

"So you're just gonna put all the blame on me instead of talking to your friend?"

"Troy's not gonna tell me the truth. He's been acting all wonk ever since Gabriella showed up."

"Why? Because he missed one basketball practice?"

"So he could go try out for a musical!"

"So it's a crime when Troy misses one practice for something else but when you miss practice to see me it's perfectly fine?"

"That's completely different!"

"How?"

"Because I'm not keeping some sorta secret double life from him!"

"Wrong, Chad. You are."

The hesitation led to a stare down between the two. Chad looked almost like a deer caught in the headlights, knowing from her reaction and her stare that he had opened his big mouth. His look started to soften but Taylor wasn't letting up. She closed her locker and turned away from him, taking her backpack and getting ready to leave. Chad took a few seconds, attempting to figure out just the right words to say.

"You know what I mean," he said, causing Taylor to stop walking. He paused and raised an eyebrow, hoping she really did understand. "Right…?"

Taylor sighed. She moved a strand of hair behind her ear, thinking. She did understand what Chad meant. She understood why he reacted the way that he did. But it didn't mean she agreed with him. She glanced over her shoulder towards him, "I don't like this anymore than you do. Gabriella doesn't belong in that musical anymore than Troy does. But can't you stop and think about this for a minute? That maybe this could be our way out? That if they do this then we can stop hiding?"

Chad ran his fingers through his hair, "You figured that two minutes after hearing it?"

She gave him a "duh" look.

"But…" Chad sighed. He walked up to her, "This isn't how things are supposed to be. Jocks and nerds aren't supposed to be in musicals."

"And jocks and nerds aren't supposed to like each other," she stated.

There was a pause. More of an awkward silence, actually. But as usual, Taylor was right. She was always right. It wasn't necessarily that Chad was too big of a goofball to accept it; he just wasn't that good with change. When he and Taylor agreed to see each other in secret it added a sense of danger and fun. It wasn't wrecking his chances with the team or a championship game. With Troy and this Gabriella girl, everything was being thrown off. It was distracting the team. It was on the verge of sending Sharpay on a rampage. It could reveal his relationship with Taylor before he wanted it to. While it was nice keeping it secret even Chad admitted sometimes to not wanting to hide. But it wasn't the right time. And some part of Chad wanted to be the one to tell everyone, not have Troy and some new girl be the ones to let it out of the bag. How could he explain all of that to Taylor? He opened his mouth to speak but Taylor cut him off.

"I'll see you in class."

And she walked away.

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><p>A bit of a short chapter, I know. But I wanted to get an update up some time this week. I do feel this was a bit rushed and I almost considered having the before and after of Stick to the Status Quo as one chapter. Then I realized I'm not sure yet where the next part is going or what I'm gonna do with it. So I figured it'd be best for the two chapters to stand on their own and each give off different feelings. Hopefully it works well. If it doesn't…I'll try to have the next chapter up by next week. And I know I still have Princess and the Frog to update. I blame procrastination. And getting easily distracted by anything. But as usual I wanna thank everyone who's still reading this and any of my other stories and being so patient with the updates. And I'd also like to thank the people who reviewed the latest chapter: and <em>LadiiBabiiRocRoyalty990<em>. And as usual I'll thank everyone who reviewed the story since it started at the end of the final chapter, whenever that goes up. Thanks for reading everyone, and happy two days away from being the weekend!


	6. After Stick to the Status Quo

Disclaimer: I do not own High School Musical

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><p><strong> Chapter Six: After Stick to the Status Quo<strong>

Talking to Troy didn't go as well as Chad had hoped. He had gone into lunch with the intention of talking calmly to Troy and letting him know that although he thought it was the stupidest thing ever that his best friend was going through with the musical he had his back. Unfortunately it didn't end anywhere near as nice as Chad planned. Not long after lunch started, everyone was confessing. About everything. Zeke loved to bake. One of the nerds popped and locked. One of the skaters played the cello…and then proceeded to play the cello in front of the whole school. Everyone was only coming out with all of these secrets because they thought Troy secretly loved to sing his whole life.

Chad wasn't a big fan of change. He may not have particularly liked the status quo, but it was something that he and his friends had been living by for years. Now all of a sudden everyone was discarding it like it was nothing. This wasn't the school that Chad knew. Drama geeks weren't supposed to like sports. Goths weren't supposed to garden. Artists weren't supposed to like math. Jocks weren't supposed to jump rope. Chad just couldn't take it anymore. So by the time he found Troy in the cafeteria, he lost it. Chad just stormed out of the cafeteria. How was he supposed to be supportive of his best friend when everyone else wanted to be just like Troy? Chad wandered around the hall for a few minutes. He couldn't go to the gym to let off some steam; that'd be the first place anyone would look for him. He couldn't keep wandering aimlessly through the school; he'd either get caught by a teacher or cornered by some other students begging to know what his secret was. The only place he could go was the janitor's closet. He didn't expect Taylor to follow him in there, especially after he blew up that morning. So he might as well just hang here until next period.

"Chad?"

Chad looked up a few moments later when he heard the voice. He was surprised to see Taylor standing in the doorway.

"You ok?" she asked.

Chad shrugged his shoulders. "What are you doing here? Though you were mad."

"I am," she said. She closed the door behind her and took a seat next to Chad. "But I can't turn off my feelings just like that."

"I dunno, you do a pretty good job of it when we put on a show," he responded.

"You know that's different. And even when I'm mad at you I still care," she said.

"I know," he nodded.

"So what was up with that, you rushing out of the cafeteria like that?" Taylor asked.

"You saw that?" he replied.

She nodded.

"Well what do you think about it?" he asked quickly. "I mean, everyone coming out with all these secrets and stuff?"

Taylor shrugged her shoulders. "I think it's great. Because of Troy and Gabriella auditioning, people feel more comfortable with expressing themselves. How long has it been since we've found out something different about all our classmates? These are the people we've grown up with but all we've known about them are whether they're nerds or jocks or whatever. People can finally stop hiding a part of themselves that they're not even supposed to feel ashamed of."

Chad glanced at her, "You didn't…you know…tell everyone…. Did you?"

Taylor shook her head.

"See, that's what I don't get about you," Chad said. "Sometimes you make such a big deal about how nice it'd be to tell everyone about us but every time I seem the least bit ok with letting it out or there's a slight chance to you chicken out."

"I do not chicken out," she retorted defensively.

"Ok, then why?"

"Why do you care about this now?"

"I'm asking about it, aren't I?"

"It doesn't matter."

"Yes it does."

"Put a sock in it, Danforth."

"You put a sock in yours, McKessie."

Taylor quirked an eyebrow.

Chad hesitated. "Yeah…um…I, I sorta kinda…I'm not sure where that came from."

Taylor rolled her eyes. "Look, if you really want to know, it's called being respectful. I know you don't always ant people to know so as much as I don't want to hide, I respect that you're ok with it so I keep my mouth shut. Maybe it's something you could learn about." She started getting up but Chad lightly grabbed her wrist.

"Hold on a sec, I know I have a big fat mouth sometimes but don't go saying I'm not respectful," he replied. "If I wasn't would I offer to tell people every now and then?"

"Sometimes every now and then isn't enough, Chad," she said. "And it's not like you ever go through with it."

"I can chicken out sometimes if I wanna," Chad scoffed. "Besides even if I did wanna tell people it's not like I'd know when the right time is."

"Sure seems like now would be the ideal time," she stated.

"What, and take Troy out of the spotlight?" Chad joked. "Just cause I wanted us to be the ones to break the status quo eventually doesn't mean I'm gonna pull the lemon light from Troy."

Taylor let out a giggle. "I think the term is limelight."

"Limelight, lemon light, they're both vegetables," Chad shrugged.

Taylor nudged Chad. "How did you even make it to the eleventh grade?"

"Looks, charm, charisma…" he joked with a smile.

"Oh please," she responded.

"And the help of my amazingly brilliant girlfriend," Chad smiled.

"As true as that may be, I think now you're just trying to butter me up," Taylor said.

"Maybe…" Chad said innocently, "is it working?"

Taylor paused for a minute to think. Before she could answer the bell rang. She playfully smirked to Chad, "What do you think?" She got up and reached for the knob.

"Tay, wait," Chad said. He got up and touched her shoulder, grabbing her attention. "If you're not still mad at me or anything, is there any chance I could take you out for dinner?"

Taylor tied to hide a smile, but Chad knew when she was trying to paly the stubborn card. She obviously didn't want him to know he was off the hook that easy. "I don't know," she answered, "I've got a lot of homework."

"Maybe we could make it a study date. Or do something after all that homework," Chad suggested. "I mean, just cause everyone's gonna be paying more attention to what everyone's doing and trying to find out their secrets and stuff doesn't mean we should stop seeing each other, right? I definitely don't wanna not see you cause of all this going on here. And if they find out, they find out. It's worth taking a chance now, right? Does that make any sense?"

"Chad, honey, you never make any sense when you're nervous," she shook her head.

"Right, right. I know. You're right," he said quickly. He ran his fingers through his hair and shook his head. He couldn't even believe he was considering saying what he was about to say right now, in a closet of all places. "You're always right. I guess what I'm trying to say is that even with all this junk going on around here I don't want it to risk me not seeing you or anything. I like seeing you. I like spending time with you. Sometimes I like spending time with you more than I like playing basketball. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love basketball and I like the guy time and everything but…I like you more than that. I like _you _more than that. I guess what I'm trying to say is…."

The doorknob turned before he could get another word out. Chad and Taylor quickly turned around to see the janitor walking in. The elderly man looked at them confused.

"What are you kids doing in here?" he asked.

"Looking for her scarf," Chad blurted out quickly.

Taylor looked at him in disbelief. Not that she was in any position to come up with a more believable excuse, but was that really the best he could come up with?

"But…it's right there," the janitor responded, pointing to Taylor's neck.

Chad's mouth hung open but luckily now it was Taylor's turn to speak. "Look at that, we found it. Late for class," she said. Taylor grabbed Chad's hand and the two of them ran out. Once they were far enough away, Chad let out a sigh of relief.

"Well that didn't go as planned," he muttered to himself.

Taylor glanced at him, "What was that?"

"Nothing," he answered quickly. "So, um…about tonight, then…?"

"Chad, we really are late for class," she said. She turned around and started heading down the hall.

Chad let out a sigh as he watched her go. "So…is that a no, then?"

Taylor kept on walking. Chad sighed. He turned to start heading in the other direction. Taylor stopped walking and looked behind her. Chad hadn't gotten too far away yet. She paused and thought for a second, then went over to him and pecked him on the cheek. Chad glanced at her with a smile and she smiled back. Then they walked away from each other.

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><p>Ok so I know I didn't update last week and this probably isn't the best chapter. I know it's not an excuse, but I attribute this not being the best chapter to my not feeling well. I've been sick for almost a week now so I haven't exactly been in the mindset to write. And yes, that is the reason why I may not have been leaving reviews for stories I usually read. I don't always think straight as it is, so being sick and coughing my head off does nothing to help. I did try to write this chapter last week before I caught the sick germs from my friends but it was not working out. And I tried rewriting this chapter the other day but I couldn't focus at all. So today I buckled down and focused and wrote this whole short chapter. But I can't say for sure at this point when the next update for anything would be, although I've got too many ideas for my own good for fanfics. Anyway before I sign off and try to get some sleep for the day, I wanted to let you guys know that a friend of mine, <strong>chaylorfan123 <strong>has started writing her very first fanfiction. She's been updating it almost every day, it's a great story idea she has, and if you guys could check it out, leave a few reviews and show some support for her, that'd be awesome! So with that all said, good night everyone! Oh wait, it's only noonish. Ok, good night in twelve hours everyone!


	7. After Troy's and Gabriella's Rehearsals

Disclaimer: I do not own High School Musical.

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><p><strong> Chapter Seven: After Troy's and Gabriella's Rehearsals<strong>

The next day Troy and Gabriella were spending all their free time rehearsing. Now that the school knew about them going through with the musical, there wasn't much hiding it. However many people at East High simply disregarded it as a rumor. When it came to their friends and the Evans twins that was the time to hide. They had spent the whole day avoiding Sharpay and Ryan and minimal time was spent with their friends. Study Hall and Lunch were dedicated to musical rehearsal. Needless to say, it almost gave Chad and Taylor more time to see each other. While Troy was successful in getting out of basketball practice in the morning, Chad wasn't so lucky. When he wanted to sneak off during lunch to see Taylor, he couldn't because the guys wanted him to eat with them as usual. Taylor barely got any free time out of Study Hall because with Gabriella gone missing she had to carry out practice for the Decathlon team on her own. And as if that wasn't enough she had to spend lunch period cramming for a history exam.

Though it was only for the day, it was a lonely period for Chad and Taylor. Sure, they had close enough friends by their side; but they didn't have their best friends with them. They couldn't even take two minutes out of the day to see each other. It wasn't until the end of the day that there was even a shot at seeing each other. Taylor had no Decathlon practice so she took a seat in one of the empty classrooms, deciding to wait for Chad there; with the halls next to deserted after school there was no point in resorting to their closet. Unfortunately for Chad, he couldn't get away from basketball practice fast enough. Zeke and Jason showed up at his locker and kept bugging Chad to go with them to practice; on the way they would stop at Troy's locker and make sure he'd come with them. It took Chad ten minutes to ditch them. That only gave him and Taylor five minutes to see each other before he had to rush off to practice. And as much as Chad tried to get out for a "bathroom break", he wasn't given the chance. That meant he was leaving Taylor alone in an empty classroom after school doing who-knows-what for about three hours.

Unfortunately for Chad, it got worse than that. After Coach Bolton gave the team permission to hit the showers, Troy wandered into the gym. A few members of the team sent him glances, even when he said he would stay and work on free throws. While the coach migrated to his office for a few minutes it gave Chad and Zeke the chance to talk, though Jason remained standing by the door.

"We suck," Zeke blurted out.

"What makes you say that?" Chad replied.

"Dude which team were you watching out there?" Zeke asked. "We spent like half of practice missing every shot. Chad if it wasn't for you knocking some sense into us we would've sucked the whole time and probably have to stay working here until midnight."

Chad shrugged his shoulders, "Someone had to whip you guys into shape. And since Troy wasn't here it had to be me."

Actually, that was only the half-truth. Chad wanted to step in and take control; he could see as well as anyone else that the team was stumbling without their captain. Chad was probably the only other person they could trust to keep them in line. Troy may have been the playmaker, but Chad was the one that kept their energy up and their steam going. But Chad had been selfish in his choice to step up; he had assumed that if he did and the team would get better then they could leave sooner and he could catch up to Taylor. No such luck.

"Either way, we owe you big time," Zeke said. "If Troy ditches us for that weird musical do you think you could take over as captain?"

"Uh…." Nothing more than a test pattern tone escaped Chad. He had no idea how to respond to that. First of all, he highly doubted that Troy would drop the team completely. But the guys and the rumors weren't exactly helping him feel any better about it. Second of all, Chad wasn't captain material. How could he lead a team? Luckily, Jason interrupted before Chad could give an actual answer.

"Hey guys," he called, "you gotta listen to this. I think Troy's got a girl out there."

"What?" Zeke and Chad asked. They walked over to Jason and stared at him in disbelief.

"Yeah, just listen," Jason nodded. The three of them put their heads up against the door; they could faintly hear laughing. Two people. One was definitely Troy. The other had to be the girl.

"Oh crap," Chad muttered to himself. If the coach caught Troy with someone who wasn't on the team out there, he might as well be dead meat. Troy was in enough trouble as it was.

"See?" Jason told them. "What do we do?"

"I'll go get Coach," Zeke piped up. He rushed to Coach Bolton's office before Chad could stop him.

It only went downhill from there. While the conversation between coach and the girl, the guys had finally identified her as Gabriella which shouldn't have even taken them that long to figure out, didn't last long there was sure a bone to pick between the father and son. Coach didn't blow up nearly as much about Gabriella as the guys thought he would. But he sure went off on Troy. The team knew that Coach Bolton didn't treat Troy and differently than the rest of them, aside from getting in more practice with him at home. So to hear an argument between the two of them going down was something else. Chad had heard Coach Bolton and Troy argue before, that was no shock to him; but it was a shock to hear them right outside the locker room right after practice. When Troy finally stormed into the locker room, the team took a few steps back so he could get through. They stared at each other in disbelief before Chad dismissed them.

Chad was the first to leave, not even in the mood to shower off. He changed out of his uniform and grabbed his backpack and basketball before heading out into the hallway. He didn't get very far before Jason and Zeke caught up to him. Both were still in their uniforms so that could only mean they had talked about something and wanted to bring it up with Chad before he left.

"Hey man, wait up!" Zeke called.

Chad sighed and slowly turned to them. He wasn't in the mood to deal with them right now. After the way practice went he just wanted to see his girlfriend and relax with her. Now he couldn't even seem to do that.

"What up, dogs?" he asked.

Jason was the first to respond. "You gotta talk to Troy."

"What?" Chad asked.

"We're off our game without Troy. His head isn't in the game. He's too busy thinking about Gabriella and the musical," Zeke explained. "If any of us try to talk to him he won't listen. Not on our own he won't. Maybe if the whole team talked to him we can snap him out of it."

"So what does that have to do with me talking to him?" Chad replied.

"It's a last resort," Zeke answered. "But if Troy'll listen to any one of us, he'll listen to you."

"Yeah man, you're his best friend. And best friends knock some sense into each other," Jason added. "So go knock some sense into him."

"I'm with you guys on this, we do need to get Troy's head back in the game," Chad agreed. "But what can I say to him that you guys can't?"

Zeke shrugged, "Maybe you can get away with saying more stuff to him than the rest of us? Besides if you say something really mean to him, it'll mean something coming from you. Not from any of us."

"Yeah and we don't wanna come off as jerks to our captain," Jason said.

"So you'd rather I come off as the jerk," Chad said.

"Pretty much, yeah," Jason nodded.

"Thanks a lot man, we knew you'd understand," Zeke patted Chad's shoulder.

Chad opened his mouth to counter, but the two had already gone back to the locker room. He ran his fingers through his hair and groaned. He didn't want to deal with any of this right now. The team. Troy. The status quo. It all sucked to him. All that mattered to him right now was Taylor. He headed down the hall as fast as he could. When he got to the classroom he saw Taylor seated in the same place she was before, scribbling in her notebook. Spotting him from the corner of her eye, Taylor looked up and smiled.

"Hey, how was practice?" she asked.

She had barely gotten the word "practice" out of her mouth before Chad dropped his stuff to the ground and in an instant ran over to Taylor, pressing his lips against hers in a heated kiss. Taylor appeared shocked at his sudden reaction, but quickly returned the kiss. There were only two instances where a kiss that heated, that passionate, came out of nowhere – when they had gone long periods of time without seeing each other and when something was wrong. So when the two of them pulled back, Taylor looked at him concerned.

"What's wrong? Did something happen during practice?"

Chad didn't give a straight answer. "I just really need you right now."

Taylor nodded and wrapped her arms around him in a comforting hug. Chad almost instantly seemed to calm down more when he was around Taylor. He wasn't one to get sensitive easily; but when he did there had to be a reason why. And it wasn't that he was necessarily sensitive about the musical/basketball/status quo/whatever the heck it was ordeal now, it was driving him crazy. He had no idea what he was supposed to do or whose side he was supposed to be on. But if there was one person who would give it to him straight, it was Taylor. While they had argued over the situation it didn't stop them from talking to or caring about each other. And Chad still valued her opinion more than anyone else's. Whether he agreed with her side or not, he knew she would give it to him straight.

After a few minutes, Taylor lightly pulled away and asked Chad softly, "Do you want to talk about it now?"

Chad sighed and sat in the chair next to her. "Troy ditched practice to go do the musical thing or whatever. And the team sucked, like badly. I mean, I stepped in and sorta got them into shape, but nowhere near as much as Troy would have. Heck, Zeke and Jason were so relieved by it that they wanted me to take over as team captain. But then Troy showed up at the end of practice. He had Gabriella with him apparently, and Coach erupted. Now Zeke and Jason want me to talk some sense into Troy and make him focus completely on the team."

"But you don't want to," Taylor assumed.

Chad shook his head, "No. I don't know what to do. Part of me is agreeing with them, that I gotta go talk some sense into Troy cause if I don't we're gonna lose the championship and Troy... Well, I dunno what else. But I know something's not gonna turn out good for Troy. But I don't completely wanna talk to Troy and make him pick basketball. He's hiding something that he wants to do and someone he wants to be with. I get completely where he's coming from. But it's his choice, not anyone else's." Chad sighed and rested his head on the desk. "But I kinda wanna knock some lunkheaded-ness into him just to get it over with and shut the guys up."

Taylor sat down and looked at him sympathetically. She ran her fingers through his curls. Chad smiled lightly; he liked it when she did that, it helped make him feel better. He looked up at her.

"Do you have this kinda problem with Gabriella?"

"Honestly, not really," Taylor admitted. "But you and Troy have been friends forever. Gabriella and I are still getting to know each other. If the articles about her being a genius weren't in my locker I don't know if we would have become friends. You can't compare our two situations because while they may be similar, they're not exactly the same. Your friends want you to take the direct path and confront Troy. The Decathlon team has asked me to do the same with Gabriella, but I'm maintaining a passive attitude. As much as I believe the team needs her, Gabriella will decide for herself if this is what she wants. Unless it somehow gets to the point where it's completely out of hand, I'm not going to force her to make a choice. She can decide for herself, just like Troy can."

"But smartness can't get thrown off. A game can," Chad pointed out.

"It's not a matter of getting thrown off. It's a matter of getting distracted," Taylor corrected.

"Whatever," Chad rolled his eyes. "So what do you think I should do?"

Taylor thought for a minute before answering. "That's not my choice to make. Maybe it would be a good idea to talk to him, but I think the talking you want to do is different from what your friends are saying. It sounds like they want you to push him to choose basketball, knock some sense into him about the right choice. You just want to find out what Troy's thinking, if he still wants basketball or if he's choosing something different. Am I wrong?"

"No," Chad shook his head. He then smiled lightly, "But I can't ever tell you you're wrong. That'd be the saddest day in the world."

Taylor giggled. "But you know what I mean. It's not even that Troy has to choose something anymore, now you have to choose. Does basketball mean that much to you that you're willing to push Troy to stay on the team whether he still wants to or not, or would you rather support your friend in what he wants to do and carry the team yourself? If you didn't have to make a decision like that, it wouldn't be driving you crazy. And you can't keep your anger or annoyance about it bottled up. Maybe let Troy know how you're feeling when you talk to him, so he knows he's not the only one."

"So you're saying I should go talk to him," Chad said.

Taylor nodded.

Chad sat up and his eyes met with hers, though her hand remained in his hair. "So do you think you should try the same approach with Gabriella then? Talk to her like I talk to Troy?"

Taylor sighed, "I really don't want to get in the middle of it."

"If your smarty-pants team means as much to you as the basketball team does to me," Chad started which got another giggle out of her, "then you'll talk to Gabriella and figure something out."

"And on the off-chance it doesn't work out in either of our favors?" Taylor inquired.

He thought for a minute, and then shrugged his shoulders. "I guess we talk it out with our teams, then? Maybe both teams meet up and come up with a mutual plan?"

"Hopefully it won't come to that," she replied. "But I agree."

They smiled at each other and then pecked each other on the lips. Chad brushed his fingers through her hair. He always felt better after talking to Taylor, like something was settled and he didn't have to worry about anything. He had no idea what he'd do without her. "You're amazing, Tay."

Taylor smiled innocently and shrugged her shoulders. "I know."

Chad chuckled. He looked down, then back at her, their eyes meeting once again. "Taylor…. I…" he started.

Taylor shook her head and pressed a finger to his lips. "I know what you're going to say," she said. "You're welcome. And thank you. You can give pretty good advice yourself when you want to."

"Right…" Chad said slowly. He paused for a minute before nodding quickly. "Right. Because I was gonna say thank you and then totally rub it in your face that I used your advice to help you that you used to help me. Right, you got it. That's totally what I was just about to say."

That was so not what he was going to say.

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><p>Wow, when was the last time i updated this? It's been longer than i thought. Ok, i really have no good reason for not updating in weeks. I can only blame my laziness and getting distracted. I've been spending more time drawing and seeing my friends than anything else...which really isn't good. i gotta learn to step up my game here. Luckily there are great writers on here with awesome Chaylor stories so if it wasn't for reading like three of them today (whether i reviewed or not, which means i should probably stop checking when i first wake up in the morning) so anyway, if it wasn't for all the Chaylor stories that still exist and are being updated, the Chaylor fans and the awesome Chaylor writers that go with it all, i probably would not even think to update. So let me take this opportunity to say thank you to the writers who set amazing examples by updating...every week, every other week, way more often than i do now... and let me also say thank you to the people who are still keeping up with this story and are patient enough with all the chapters. Hope everyone is having a great summer and keep up the Chaylor love! :)<p> 


	8. After Chad's Talk With Troy

Disclaimer: I do not own High School Musical. I do not own the movie, characters, plot, or anything to do with the movie/movie series except for any made-up characters.

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><p><strong> Chapter Eight: After Chad's Talk With Troy<strong>

Chad was not in the mood to talk to anyone. After today he was on the verge of wanting to change schools. Perhaps it was a bit dramatic, but that's what happens when Zeke and Jason push him to be the one to talk Troy out of going through with the callbacks. It had started off simply, when Chad caught up with Troy at his locker.

"Hey man, how's it goin?" Chad greeted Troy.

"Great," Troy responded grabbing a folder.

"Listen man, can we talk?" Chad inquired.

"I gotta hit the library. I left one of my textbooks at home and I still have to write the chapter summary for class," he answered.

"No worries, I'll go with you," Chad offered.

Troy had looked at him doubtfully, "Chad Danforth? In a library of all places?"

"Hey it could happen," he replied defensively.

"Yeah if you wanna pick up one of Gabriella's friends," Troy joked.

"Haha," Chad laughed nervously. "Hilarious." He tossed his basketball back and forth before following Troy. "So man, about the musical…"

"Not that again," Troy groaned.

"It's not me, it's the guys," he said quickly.

"Whatever, look it's not affecting my game. You don't have to worry about anything," Troy said.

"I'm not the one who's worried," Chad replied. "The guys just want some encouragement, that's all. You know, make sure nothing goes wrong."

"Well tell them they're overreacting," he said.

"It's not like they don't have a reason. Our team captain might be going a-wall and we don't want that to affect our shot at winning the championship."

"It's not gonna affect anything Chad."

"Look at it from our point of view, it kinda is."

"Why can't you just let me handle this?"

"Because your friends are worried about you!"

"So suddenly I'm not allowed to have friends who aren't jocks."

"Exactly! Well, maybe…. No, not really…. That's not the point. Hoops if you see where I'm coming from-"

Exasperated, Troy turned and faced Chad. "Can we just give it a rest, already? You're not my dad; you're not a teacher. I don't need a lecture from you."

"Dude all I'm trying to say is-" Chad started.

"I've had it, man. Can you just let me work this out?" Troy asked.

"Can't I just talk?" Chad complained.

"No and I think it's time we dropped this," Troy decided before walking into the library.

From there everything had gone downhill. Troy didn't give Chad a chance to answer so Chad didn't give Troy a chance to answer. He started going on and on about why it was better to be famous for playing basketball than for singing. Chad didn't even know where half the stuff was coming from; he must have been pulling it out of his butt or something. But if he didn't put as much effort as he could into changing Troy's mind, he'd never hear the end of it from the team. He might as well go down in East High history as the guy who ruined the championship. That was the last thing Chad wanted to happen. Once he had realized he couldn't get through to Troy, Chad left to go work on his free throws. If there was still even the slightest chance that Troy might back out then Chad had to make sure he remained at the top of his game. He spent the remainder of free period in the gym; that is, until Zeke and Jason showed up.

"Hey man," Zeke jogged over. "How'd it go with Troy?"

Chad sighed. He didn't want to deal with this right now. "Not good," he answered flatly.

"So Troy's still going through with the musical," Zeke realized.

"Yeah. Tried everything in the book, nothing got through to him," Chad answered.

"So we're toast," Zeke groaned.

"No we're not," Chad insisted. "Look can we just drop the musical issue already? Troy's obviously made his choice. We can't let that affect us. If he's gonna ditch then we might as well work even harder to win than we did before. We can win without Troy." He was quickly met with doubtful glances. Chad paused before adding hesitantly, "…Can't we?"

"Not unless we change Troy's mind," Zeke shook his head.

Groaning, the guys hung their heads in defeat. That is, until Jason spoke up.

"Too bad we can't remind Troy how much he loves basketball."

Zeke raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean?"

Jason shrugged his shoulders. "Well if we can remind Troy how important basketball is to everyone and show how important he is to us then wouldn't that be enough to make him ditch the drama geeks?"

Zeke and Chad exchanged glances. Chad opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out. Something told him, he wasn't sure if it was a good idea. Zeke, on the other hand, had other plans. A huge smile crossed his face and he snapped his fingers.

"Jay, that's brilliant!" he exclaimed. "We can get the whole team together, get a bunch of stuff from all the other Wildcats superstars and Troy if he keeps this up then he'll be just like them! Jason, you're a freaking genius!" Zeke and Jason then proceeded to hit high fives and do a little happy dance.

Chad remained doubtful. He blinked a couple of times, attempting to take in the plan. He still wasn't sure about this, but he couldn't blow his cover. If Zeke and Jason found out that Chad was on Troy's side with the whole idea then they'd get suspicious and find out about his secret relationship with Taylor in no time. "Guys, guys, wait…" he cut their dance party short. Great, now he had to think of a downer. Then it hit him. "What about the girl?"

Jason moaned. "Dude, I completely forgot! Man I hate being a freaking genius!"

Zeke shook his head at his friend. He then turned to Chad, "What exactly are you getting at?"

Luckily Chad still had a few things left to pull out of his butt. "Think about it. Even if we can get Troy back on our side and get him to forget about the callbacks, what does that mean for Gabriella? She could still change his mind. C'mon, everyone can tell she likes the guy. And you know Troy hates breaking hearts, so if she pulls the waterworks even once he can change his mind back. We gotta make her wanna drop outta the musical, too, before all our hard work goes to waste." Not to mention if the basketball team ended up losing Troy, it also meant the Scholastic Decathlon would lose Gabriella. It was a lose/lose situation.

"So what do we do about it?" Zeke asked.

Chad snapped his fingers, "We can meet up with Taylor!"

"Who's that?" Jason asked in confusion.

My girlfriend, Chad wanted to say. "M-McKessie," he nearly stammered as to not let anything slip. "Get with the program guys, she'd like Gabriella's best friend now. If Troy's pals can talk him outta it then who says the girl's friends can't talk her outta it?"

"That's exactly what I was gonna say!" Jason said.

"Team up with the nerds," Zeke pondered aloud. "I guess it's worth a shot."

"Then I know exactly where to find them," Chad said.

As usual Taylor was working with her cohorts in the science lab throughout free period. They had already gone over mathematical equations and reviewed the periodic table, but couldn't get too much further than that without Gabriella. Unfortunately today was the day Gabriella was meeting up with Kelsi to work on the song for callbacks. None of the nerds understood what the appeal was – save for Martha, albeit was more of a dancer than a singer – but they had no choice but to go along with it. There was nothing they could do to prevent Gabriella from going to rehearse. They'd just have to make due without her and wait until the next Decathlon meeting to go over chemical equations. Until then, the rest of free period was for nothing more than catching up on homework and working on some extra credit assignments. But plans change. And these particular plans involved the jocks.

Taylor was working with some chemical formula and in the process of scribbling down her findings when she saw Chad enter the science room from the corner of her eye. At first her face lit up but then she remembered that her teammates were also in the room. Granted, they weren't so brilliant in the romance department, but they were brilliant nonetheless. They'd be bound to catch on. Luckily, Taylor didn't have to worry about being outted; behind Chad entered Zeke and Jason. Taylor had to take a short moment to remind herself that she hated Chad. Or, at least had to pretend like she hated Chad. She removed her goggles and looked at the boys curiously as they approached. Chad rested his basketball on the desk and leaned on it, meeting Taylor's eyes. Any other time she would have melted looking into those brown eyes. But this time looked like serious business.

"We need to talk," were the first words out of Chad's mouth.

Taylor had no idea what this could possibly be about. But if some of Chad's teammates were here and Chad wasn't purposefully looking to start a fight then something had to be up.

"Go," she nodded.

"I'll cut to the chase. We got a problem, you got a problem," Chad said. "Call your nerd herd over."

"Really, that's the best you can come up with? 'Nerd herd?'" Taylor asked doubtfully.

"Hey any other day I'd have something way better up my sleeve," Chad replied. "But we got business to do."

Taylor was at first unsure of what to think of his proposal. Any other day it would seem fishy for the jocks and nerds to get together. Then she remembered hers and Chad's talk. If worse came to worse their teams would have to collaborate and knock some sense into Troy and Gabriella, getting them out of the musical and back into the cliques where they belonged. It wasn't the solution that Taylor wanted and she doubted it was what Chad wanted to do; but clearly it had finally gotten to the point where there were no other options.

"Everyone, come here," she signaled the rest of the Decathlon team over to her table, "We have a meeting."

Within the next few seconds, the nerds gathered around and met in what first looked like a stare-down with the jocks. None of them knew what was going on, but luckily Chad had everything planned out. Well, mostly. That would be where Taylor and her friends came in.

"So you guys want Gabriella back on your team, right?" Chad asked.

The group gave obvious nods.

"Well we want Troy back on our team," Chad said. "We've already tried talking some sense into Troy but he wouldn't listen. You guys having the same problem with Gabriella?"

"She's dividing up her time between the musical and Decathlon decently enough. For now," Taylor sighed. "But she seems far more interested in the musical."

"We're losing our best teammate," one of the nerds, Timothy, added. "Taylor's amazing but we've lost every year to West High and South High. But even with her incredible negotiation skills and go-to attitude, Taylor's not talking any sense into Gabriella. We're gonna lose again."

Taylor sent a look Timothy's way, not just for putting her on such a high pedestal when it couldn't be a worse time to do so, but she was pretty sure Chad was sending a glare this boy's way right now. She turned back to Chad, "Ignore him."

"Can't exactly ignore someone with glasses that huge," Chad retorted.

"Like that sorry excuse for hair?" Timothy replied. "Even if I can perfect my home-made conditioner there'd never be enough of it in the world for that unkempt mane of yours."

"You wanna make something outta it?" Chad threated.

Oh no, not here, not now. Taylor quickly snapped her fingers in Chad's face. "Focus, Danforth." Thankfully it easily averted Chad's attention back to Taylor. But knowing how easily this Timothy kid was working up Chad, Zeke offered to speak up.

"We might have a plan. But we need some help."

Chad nodded in agreement, "We're thinking of getting Troy in the locker room. Maybe if we can ambush him with all these stories about Wildcat champions we can knock some sense into him and get him back on the team 100 percent. And we need to do it ASAP, like tomorrow."

"And how does that assist our Gabriella crisis?" Taylor inquired.

"Thing is, even if we can get Troy to forget about the callbacks, Gabriella's still a threat to us," Zeke explained. "Chad pointed out that if Gabriella wants to do the musical that badly and really wants to do it with Troy then she can easily turn him against us. So even if we can convert Troy back to jockdom, there's still a chance Gabriella can bring him back to the dark side. And we're all in hot water."

Taylor looked at Chad quizzically, "You came up with that yourself?" A smile crossed her lips as she said that, but both she and Chad knew that they had to keep it low-key and step up the act. Whether they were working together or not.

"Impressed?" Chad smirked.

Taylor scoffed. "In your dreams."

"So is there any way you guys can stop Gabriella from going through with the callbacks?" Jason asked. "Like hold her hostage in here or something?"

"Anything to keep her away from that boy toy Troy," Timothy folded his arms.

"How? We can't keep watch of her 24/7," Taylor pointed out.

"Well what can you do?" Chad asked.

"Bet she wouldn't wanna do music with Troy if she thought he hated her," Jason said.

The two groups looked at Jason wide-eyed. Jason looked back and forth between each person, scared to death he might have just done something wrong.

"What, what'd I say now?"

"Two good ideas in one day?" Zeke's jaw dropped. "It's a new record!"

Chad shook his head. "What are you talking about?"

"We trick Gabriella into thinking Troy said something mean about her," Zeke answered.

"A manipulation tactic?" Taylor raised an eyebrow.

"Sure, let's go with that," Zeke said.

"But you can't fool someone like Gabriella," Timothy scoffed. "Have you seen her IQ?"

"Ha, joke's on you, nerd!" Jason laughed. "We don't even know what an IQ is!"

Silence.

"Ignore him," Chad said.

"I say if we can't trick Gabriella we'll trick Troy," Zeke said. "You know, like tape record him saying something mean about Gabriella and get the message to her."

"You think that's too harsh?" Chad wondered.

"Nah, they'll get over it," Zeke shook his head.

"But where would we even get a tape recorder?" Taylor replied.

"We can do better than that," Timothy suggested. "Taylor, you just got a new webcam for your laptop, right?"

Taylor nodded. "Not to mention an upgraded system. If something is within a few feet of my laptop and has a USB port or Wi-Fi connectivity I can use my new program to control the object or set something off."

"That's perfect!" Timothy exclaimed, the rest of the nerds nodding in agreement.

"So you guys have one laptop, we'll take Taylor's, get Troy in the locker room at lunch tomorrow," Jason said.

"And as soon as we can get Troy to say he'll ditch Gabriella we'll get it on camera and send the feed right to you guys," Zeke finished.

Taylor was still hesitant. "I don't know. Girls can get pretty hung up on guys. And Gabriella looks so fragile, how do we know something like this won't kill her inside?" She exchanged a look with Chad and he nodded lightly; they were both thinking the same thing. They wanted their friends back on their teams, but they didn't want to go so far as hurting them to do it.

"But you guys'll be right there to comfort her," Zeke said. "So it's not like she's gonna be totally heartbroken. Right?"

"Exactly," Timothy agreed. "We can get her mind back onto chemistry, no problem. We all know chemistry has nothing to do with some lame crush."

Yeah, right.

"So you guys are in, then?" Jason asked excitedly.

"Is the atomic weight of Beryllium exactly 9.012182 units?" Timothy scoffed.

The jocks looked at each other in confusion.

"That means yes, doofuses!" Timothy exclaimed, exasperated.

"Ooooooohhhhhh," the boys nodded.

As cool as everyone else seemed with it, Taylor still had her reservations. She looked at Chad with a hint of remorse in her voice. "Do you really think this is going to work?"

She was really hoping Chad would say something to get them out of it. If they could still stick with the plan but change it around as to not hurt anyone's feelings then Taylor would feel much better about it. Taylor was sure Chad didn't want to go through with it if it meant unnecessarily hurting anyone. Chad was smarter than people gave him credit for, after all. Although they were outnumbered now, even if Taylor couldn't think of another plan then she was sure Chad could say something that would change their minds.

Unfortunately there was no such luck. Chad sighed in defeat. "It's the only way to save Troy and Gabriella from themselves."

Taylor reluctantly nodded. There was no way around it.

Chad cleared his throat. "So, um, we start tomorrow?" he asked.

No one could back out now. The only possible silver lining to such a diabolical plan was that should it end badly, Chad and Taylor could be miserable together. "Ok," she agreed. "The first thing."

It looked like that was the only thing she could have said to put a smile on Chad's face. At least given the circumstances. "Nice," he said. He nodded to Zeke and Jason. "Let's go." The three of them turned around and headed out into the hall.

Of course, though, not before Chad winked at Taylor. The smiles the two of them held after that, they were going to need to hold on to for a while.

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><p>Oh snap! Has it really been like a year since I first started this story? Dang it, i really gotta step up my game with this one! Princess and the Frog, too, but going back and forth with watching and pausing the movie that story does take a little longer to write. Still that should be no excuse for taking so long with either of my stories. Anyway, this is clearly the part of the movie where the jocks and nerds are planning their scheme. I've really been trying to add some more of the dialogue and scenes from the movie into the story to make it more believable and make it feel like these things were really happening. As for Chaylor, there's not so much of them in this particular chapter. I mainly wanted to show how the plan was affecting the two of them individually. As for them as a couple, there should be way more Chaylorness next chapter. So as usual I wanted to say thank you to everyone who is still reading andor reviewing (preferably both, just putting it out there, but I'll gladly take what I can get). Also, another thank you to the people still writing Chaylor stories on here! People reading my stories and my reading your stories is what keeps me going and helps with the inspiration to write more (no matter how slow or lazy things get). Have a great rest of the week everyone and for the people going back to school, good luck! :)


	9. After the Plan

Disclaimer: I obviously do not own High School Musical

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><p><strong> Chapter Nine: After the Plan<strong>

Chad had been waiting outside Taylor's door for nearly fifteen minutes. He checked his watches every couple of minutes, even rang the doorbell five times. He knew she was home now; her Decathlon practice ended long before basketball practice. Chad would have left school sooner if Troy's game were better. Coach was pushing the team harder than ever now. But that's digressing; Chad didn't want to think about practice right now. He wanted to spend time with his girlfriend. He grew more concerned knowing she wasn't answering the door; he never had to wait outside for more than five minutes. Running his fingers through his hair, Chad glanced around before wandering across her property to the fence. He climbed over it into the backyard, though it was easy enough to open, and crossed the backyard. He quickly found himself standing under Taylor's bedroom window; he could spot it easily because it was the room with the planetary curtains.

"Tay, you up there?" Chad called.

No answer.

"Taylor?" he asked again.

Still nothing.

Chad picked up a pebble from the ground and threw it up to the window. It made a small snapping sound but evidently not enough to get Taylor's attention. He tried throwing another rock, but still nothing. Chad sighed and scratched his head. Either she was too busy doing homework to notice, showering, or being just plain stubborn. Chad was betting on the stubborn one, but he wouldn't put it past her to be so buried in work to notice her surroundings. He turned to the tree behind him and began climbing. He wasn't sure if he'd be able to reach her window from even the furthest branch but Chad had no idea what else to do at this point. Though he climbed up fairly easily, the branch closest to Taylor's window was skinny and not very sturdy. Though Chad did try to sit, stand, and lean over it to knock on the window there was no way he could without falling. Blowing some bangs out of his face, Chad had no other option but to throw his basketball against her window. It was only a matter of seconds before noises were heard from inside the house. The curtains pulled back to reveal Taylor with ear buds hanging around her neck. She opened the window and her eyes widened when she saw Chad.

"Oh my God, Chad!" she gasped. "What are you doing up here?"

Chad shrugged his shoulders, "Oh you know. Just hanging around."

Taylor shook her head. "Climb down. I'll open the front door for you."

Chad watched her scurry out of her bedroom before climbing down. He picked up his basketball and met her at the front door. Taylor let Chad in and he followed her back to her room. He closed the door behind him and leaned up against the wall while Taylor relocated to her desk.

"I'm sorry, Tay," he apologized. "I was waiting outside for fifteen minutes. I wasn't sure how else to get your attention."

Taylor hit her hand to her head and mentally scolded herself. "That was…? Oh, I'm sorry. I wasn't even paying attention…. I was so caught up in my work and then my mind kept wandering so I couldn't focus and I put on some music…"

Chad was unsure the last time he had seen Taylor so unfocused and lost from reality. He moved so he was standing next to her. "Is everything ok?"

She shook her head and gave him a stare. "No, everything's not ok. I keep thinking about Gabriella and picturing her reacting after she saw the video with Troy. I had everything planned out perfectly. A powerpoint, photos, a speech…everything. Why do I feel like such a jerk?"

"Because it's Act Like a Jerk Day?" Chad joked.

"I'm serious," she sighed. She looked down, her hands in her lap, and then returned her gaze to Chad. "Did you feel like this at all when you had your talk with Troy?"

"What do you mean?" he asked. "The talk went fine."

"So you didn't feel guilty at all? No conscience, no second thoughts, nothing at all?" she asked.

Chad thought for a moment. He shook his head briefly after. "Not really. I mean, Troy seemed perfectly fine with everything. We questioned him, we asked him everything going on in his head and he told us everything. He even insisted that he was for the team and no dumb musical was gonna change that. Troy proved we have nothing to worry about with the championship, so what's there to feel guilty about?"

"I'm glad it went over so well with you," she sighed.

Chad raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"You should have seen the look on Gabriella's face after she saw that video," Taylor groaned. "She was perfectly fine with everything else. Tolerant, patient, paying complete attention…but then as soon as she saw Troy on the screen…when she heard everything he said…" Taylor looked up at the ceiling, taking in a deep breath. She hated seeing the look on Gabriella's face the first time and now that she had that image in her mind she wanted nothing more than for it to go away. Taylor was getting upset just thinking about it and those words weren't even being said to her. "…she was heartbroken, Chad. She looked like her heart and soul were crushed into a million pieces. She wouldn't even talk to or look at any of us after that. It's not even that I'm worried she won't be on the Decathlon now, I think we went so far with this that it cost me my one real friend."

"So what does that make me, chopped liver?" Chad inquired.

"You know what I mean. It's different," Taylor sighed. She shook her head at him and rose from her chair. She faced away from Chad, her arms around herself. It wasn't like she expected him to understand or anything; they had gone through completely different experiences with this plan. Aside from that, Taylor rarely opened up about her feelings to anyone. It took her nearly the entire course of their relationship to open up to Chad and he was so much more willing to share how he felt about things. How could he even begin to imagine how she felt if they rarely ever talked about things like that?

Chad put his basketball down and walked over to Taylor. Standing behind her he gently wrapped his arms around her. "It's ok…" he said soothingly.

Taylor shook her head, "No it's not ok."

"Just give her some time to cool off about it. Gabriella will get over it," Chad said.

"How can you be so sure?"

"She doesn't seem like the type of person to hold a grudge."

"As if you would know."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You were to caught up in making Troy choose to bother getting to know her."

"Hey, I didn't wanna make Troy choose and you know that."

"Right, I forgot, you were forced into it."

"Cool the sarcasm, Tay."

Taylor scoffed and pulled away from him.

Chad looked at her in disbelief, "Ok what's with the attitude?"

"Because I knew this was a bad idea to begin with! This is what I was worried about," Taylor replied exasperated. "I didn't want anyone's feelings to get hurt and look what's happened!"

"And what do you know about feelings?" he questioned.

"Excuse me?" Taylor replied, sounding insulted.

"You're not exactly one to talk about your feelings," he argued. "I've tried to tell you for almost two weeks now how I feel and the subject keeps getting deflated and redirected and you don't bother to talk about any of your feelings…"

"You want me to talk about my feelings? Fine, backstabbed a friend who didn't even deserve it, how's that for feelings?"

"Really, you're thinking backstabber? Cause I'm thinking more of a witch."

"You know what, if anyone's a witch it's you."

"Me?"

"Yes, you!"

"Ok, enlighten me!"

"Wow, you know a three syllable word."

"Are we really gonna have this argument now?"

"Apparently we are!"

"So tell me why I'm the witch then, McKessie!"

"Because you just ruined a relationship between Troy and someone who had really strong feelings for him! Gabriella's fricking crazy about that boy, Chad, anyone can see it! Except you, who's apparently the dumbest lunkhead on the face of the Earth! But you know what, it's totally fine because you're just happy you didn't lose your star player and everything worked out for the jocks. So good for you," she explained in a half annoyed, half sarcastic tone.

"I didn't want it to come this far either, but it had to! We agreed on it!" Chad yelled.

"I'm really wishing we hadn't," Taylor folded her arms.

"Is there anything else you wish we hadn't done while we're at it?" he interrogated.

"Yes, as a matter of fact," she yelled. "I'm starting to wish we never even got together!"

It was a strong argument, a powerful threat, and a long awkward silence. For a while the two of them simply stood across from each other. It was almost like a long staring contest, save for the tension. Taylor couldn't read the expression on Chad's face at all. His eyebrows seemed to twitch a little and he almost looked like he was biting his tongue but she couldn't make out a clear reaction from him. Nevertheless Taylor stood her ground. Had it not been for the heat of the argument or how caught up she was with thinking about how this all affected her friend, she probably would have regretted the words that just escaped her mouth. But whether she regretted it or not there was no way to take it back now. Odds were that Chad would leave, Taylor would let everything sink in and then she would come to terms with their fight. This clearly hadn't been a fake fight; even in their fake fights that kind of heat couldn't be faked.

Finally Chad's face just became stoic. "So I guess this was a mistake then."

"It would seem so," she replied coldly.

"Then I guess it was all a waste. We…us…shouldn't have happened. It was all wrong," he said.

Taylor merely nodded.

Chad looked down, then back up at her. "Looks like we got nothing to discuss anymore. We're done." Without saying another word or even bothering to pick up his basketball, Chad walked out of her room.

Taylor didn't bother to follow him. She just stayed where she was. It didn't even cross her mind how Chad took her comment or her reactions; she was nothing but angry. She was angry at the status quo for starting this all. She was angry at the jocks for forcing their hand with this plan. She was angry at Chad for not feeling any remorse and going about the day like nothing ever happened. But most of all she was angry with herself for letting it get this far. Taylor should have spoken up during free period yesterday when they were planning this; she should have let people know how uncomfortable she was. Instead she kept her mouth shut. And then she took it out on Chad. For a moment Taylor almost started to regret it; then her mind reverted back to what Troy had said.

"_Gabriella is nothing to me. You're my guys and we're gonna go and win this thing."_

Such simple things to be said but they had even more powerful meanings. Troy basically said he pitied Gabriella; that she was just another worthless nerd to him. His friends and status as a jock clearly meant more than someone who sincerely wanted to be his friend, maybe more, and spend more time with him even if it meant doing something out of his comfort zone and becoming the laughing stock of East High. It made Taylor question her entire relationship with Chad. Was she just some nerd Chad pitied and he prayed off of her little schoolgirl crush all that time ago? Did she mean as little to him as Troy claimed Gabriella did? She couldn't believe she even….

Taylor shook her head. No, no, she didn't feel anything. Not towards Chad. Taylor was never one to discuss her feelings and show her vulnerabilities and there was no point to admitting to anything about Chad now. Taylor could never afford to be vulnerable anyway; she had a Decathlon team to lead and she dreamt of going into politics. No one could be weak as any kind of leader; especially not with the reputation she built up. After all, Chad said so himself. They were a mistake. So why should she feel anything for him? Why should she admit she ever did?

But there was no one to discuss said feelings with now. No one to see her be vulnerable. No one to make her talk about anything. It was just Taylor, alone with her thoughts in her room. With those thoughts, everything began sinking in. And when that happened there was only one thing to do. She curled up in a ball on her bed and buried her face in her knees, allowing the guilt to slowly consume her.

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><p>Well that was sure cheerful wasn't it? o_0 I know the chapter may not be the best; I wrote it at 2 a.m. while roleplaying My Little Pony over Skype with a couple of friends. Though as fun as that is I seriously miss roleplaying High School Musical. Anyone else miss those days, at least when HSM would be all over the place and people would be going crazy about it and talking about it? It's not just me, right? Sorry, I'm digressing. Anyway i started writing the chapter with one intention and it took a completely different direction. All i have to do is remember what I wanna do with the next chapter. But for the record, don't let this so-called Chaylor breakup get you down. C'mon, have i ever written a story where they break up for good? No, and i never EVER will and i mean NEVER! Cause that'd be like the worst thing ever. I'm sorry, but I'd sooner rather see Troy break up with Gabriella and get with like Kelsi or something (but not Sharpay) instead of seeing Chaylor break up forever. You guys know where i'm coming from, right? Ok wow, it's really late now. i will try to go to bed. As usual, thank you everyone who still keeps up with this story, who's favorited it andor reviewed it...you guys are awesome! :)


	10. After the Confession

Disclaimer: I do not own High School Musical.

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><p><strong> Chapter Ten: After the Confession<strong>

"Hey man."

Chad was met with a dazed and confused Troy. Troy seemed to have no idea where Chad, Jason or Zeke came from but somehow they found him in the rooftop garden. Supposedly no one else knew about this place; Chad didn't bother telling Troy how they found him. They had more important things to discuss.

"We just had another team meeting," Chad continued.

"Oh," Troy responded. He sounded like he didn't care much; like he had other things on his mind. "Wonderful."

"We had a team meeting about how we haven't been acting like a team," Chad said. "I mean us, not you. About the singing-"

Troy cut him off. "I don't wanna talk about it."

"We just wanna know that we're gonna be there cheering for you," Chad finished.

Troy looked at them confused.

"Yeah man," Zeke added. "If singing's something you wanna do then we should be boosting you up, not bringing you down."

"Win or lose, we're teammates. That's what we're about," Chad said. He chuckled and playfully punched Troy in the shoulder. "You're gonna turn out to be the worst singer in the world."

"Which we don't know, cause we haven't actually heard you sing," Jason admitted.

"And you're not gonna hear me sing. Cause Gabriella won't even talk to me," Troy said decisively. He then sighed and looked away from them. "And I dunno why."

Chad, Jason and Zeke exchanged uneasy glances with each other. Jason scratched his head, Chad looked down and Zeke fiddled with the lunchbox he was carrying. It was a bit of an awkward silence as one waited for another to speak up next. Finally Chad took the initiative.

"We do…" he admitted quietly.

His response yielded another confused look from Troy. But it wasn't merely a look of confusion; it was also one of shock. His friends had been hiding something and now everything was going to come out. Troy had no idea how bad it was.

Zeke walked up to Troy. He took a bag of cookies out of his lunchbox and handed them to his friend in an attempt to soften the blow. "I baked the fresh today. You might wanna try one before we tell you the rest."

"The rest? The rest of what?" Troy asked, though he was kind of afraid to know.

"The rest of the story," Jason said. "But if you don't wanna any of the cookies I'll take them."

Zeke and Chad glared at Jason. He reacted guiltily by tapping his fingers together. Troy rolled his eyes and handed a cookie to Jason, who happily gulped it down. Instead of taking one for himself, Troy put the bag down with his uneaten sandwich.

"What's going on, guys?" he asked.

"We-" Chad started speaking up. However Zeke placed his hand on Chad's shoulder and stopped him.

"No man, let me tell him," he said.

Chad raised an eyebrow. "Dude?"

"This was mainly my idea anyway," Zeke said.

"But I'm his best friend."

"So? We're all not the only ones who pushed Troy into something, are we?"

Chad looked away uneasily. Zeke stepped forward and took a deep breath before explaining to Troy.

"We were all worried about you. We thought we were losing you to the drama geeks. I mean, you were spending so much time with Gabriella and ditching us to go rehearse with her and stuff, we thought you didn't really care," he said. "None of us thought we could win the championship without you so Jason and I…well, mostly me…came up with all these different plans to keep you on the team. You're our captain, Troy. We don't stand a chance without you. But I should've been more understanding than anyone. I mean, I've been hiding for years from you guys that I love to bake. And I wanted to crush any hopes you had of doing something a jock isn't really supposed to do. It was wrong and I'm sorry."

"We all are," Chad added.

"Good cookies," Jason nodded.

Chad and Zeke stared at him.

Jason swallowed. "I mean, what they said."

"What are you guys talking about?" Troy asked. "It's not like you had anything to do with Gabriella voiding me. You didn't force me to stay on the team, you were just…I don't know…bugging me a lot."

"Yeah…yeah, we did," Chad admitted. "The meeting in the locker room. The speeches, the pictures…it was all planned. The nerds and us jocks got together to plan a way to keep you and Gabriella from going through with the musical. Our team conspired with Taylor and her team. She got Gabriella in a Decathlon meeting and we got you in the locker room. We got you to say things, and then used Taylor's laptop to send feedback of the stuff about forgetting about Gabriella and the musical to them."

Troy raised an eyebrow. "You worked with Taylor? As in Taylor McKessie?" he asked doubtfully. He let out a faint laugh, probably the only one he's had in days. "But you two hate each other!"

Chad paused. He looked down and put his hands in his pockets. Now seemed like the time to come clean and share his secret like everyone else had shared theirs, but the focus was supposed to be on confessing that they ruined Troy's relationship – or rather, potential relationship – with Gabriella. On the other hand, if Chad didn't get it out now then Troy would never let him live it down. Besides it wasn't as if anything would make a difference now. There wasn't anything to share with the rest of the school. Sure, Zeke and Jason probably would, but Troy wouldn't. And if anyone did bring anything up then there was a simple answer and the topic would be dropped. Chad slowly picked his head up and looked at Troy.

"About that…" he started, "we don't. Taylor and I…well, she's…. She's my girlfriend."

Troy's eyes widened. Chad glanced back to Zeke and Jason to see their responses. Zeke's jaw might as well have dropped to the ground and Jason was on the verge of choking on his cookie.

"Yeah," Chad nodded. "For three years."

Then came the awkward silence again. Clearly Jason and Zeke had no idea how to respond to that. Troy had to blink for a couple of minutes to let it sink in. But all he could really get out was, "Wow."

Chad turned his attention back to Troy. "But that's not the point. The point is, we all did a bad thing. We tricked you into saying those mean things about Gabriella. Saying how she doesn't matter to you and the musical meant nothing, and how you only care about us and basketball. That's why Gabriella doesn't wanna talk to you. Cause we messed it up for you guys."

Troy just sat there in awe. It was hard to read past the shocked expression. There was a lot of information for him to take in, but the guys weren't sure what kind of response they'd get from him. Was Troy going to give them the cold shoulder? Would he forgive them? Did they need to lock Troy and Gabriella in a closet together to get them to work it out? Should they just tell Troy they'd handle the championship on their own and he could go for the musical? Chad could hear a loud munching from Jason as he tried to decipher what Troy was thinking. For now, Troy didn't want to make eye contact with any of them. He just looked away.

Zeke was the first to break the silence, albeit quietly. "We'll understand if you never wanna talk to us again."

Jason nodded in agreement, barely able to finish his cookie. "Do you want us to leave?"

Troy only sighed and shook his head. He got up and walked to the opposite side of the garden. He leaned against the banister and stared out into the distance. His back was facing his friends and he didn't turn his head once to them, not even so much as glance at them from the corner of his eye. With their heads hung low, Jason and Zeke took that as their cue to leave. Chad watched them and nodded, then looked back at Troy. He was the most hesitant to go; Chad already lost his girlfriend because of this and he didn't want to lose Troy, too. He hesitated for a moment, running his fingers through his hair. He then slowly approached Troy and leaned against the banister with him, though kept a bit of distance away.

"I'm sorry, Hoops," he said. "We messed up big time. Is there anything we – or, at least I can do?"

Troy looked down and shook his head. "I don't think so, Chad."

"Taylor's talking to Gabriella now, too," Chad said. "Then everything will be cleared up and you guys can go back to the way it was."

The response irritated Troy. "No, Chad, it can't. Gabriella and I can never go back to the way we were because of you."

"Hoops-" he started.

But Troy didn't give him a chance. He was angry and had to get these emotions out. "No, no Hoops. Don't you get it, Chad? I liked Gabriella. A lot. I still do. I never even wanted to try out for the musical in the first place. Do you know how it felt to get told by Darbus she and I had a callback? I was freaked out, man! All I kept thinking was, how are the guys gonna react? What are they gonna think? Are they gonna treat me differently? But it wasn't just the musical that made you guys act the way you did, was it? No, it was about Gabriella. I found someone, Chad. I found someone who I really connected with, who I wanted to spend a lot of time with…and, you know what, maybe it wasn't ideal. Maybe singing wasn't my first choice of things to do. But I was doing it her. _With Gabriella. _I liked it because of her! And now, I don't even care about the musical. All I care about is that I lost someone who I loved spending time with and who liked me for me. Not because I'm some magical basketball player, not because I'm popular, not because of any other reason other than who I am. A nice guy who does more than just shoot hoops. Do you have any idea what that's like, Chad? To be with someone who doesn't care about who your friends are or how popular you are or what you do but just likes you because of who you are?"

A lot more had some out than Troy initially planned. It even took him a minute to take it all in and let out his breath. Chad was just as shocked as Troy. He knew Gabriella liked Troy. He knew Troy had feelings for Gabriella. But he hadn't realized how strong they actually were. He understood now why Taylor felt as guilty as she did. In the locker room, Troy hadn't been thinking about anything mean or about Gabriella. He only wanted to please his friends. Chad was too stupid to see past all that. It took him two whole days to see how much being away from Gabriella affected his friend. And he hated himself for it.

"Actually, yeah I do," Chad admitted softly. "But that doesn't matter right now. What's important is you and Gabriella. Not just you two, but you two going through the musical. If you wanna work things out with her and go to the callbacks, that's fine. I get it. You don't have to play the championship with us anymore. And don't worry about Coach; we'll cover for you. So just go after Gabriella and work this out." He walked around the staircase, "And I am sorry, Troy. Bout everything." He then began making his way downstairs.

Troy took a moment to tap his fingers against the banister, sinking into deep thought. It was no surprise he was still mad at Chad. Actually, he was mad at the whole team. But who could blame them? But no matter how mad a person was, it shouldn't cost them a best friend of over ten years. "So…" he opened his mouth loud enough for Chad to hear, "Taylor's your girlfriend, huh?"

Chad stopped walking. "_Was _my girlfriend," he corrected. "We broke up the other day."

"Oh…" Troy said. That wasn't as awkward as he thought it'd be. It was more awkward. "Sorry to hear that."

"It's ok," Chad shrugged.

Troy picked up the bag of cookies. He took out two and caught up with Chad on the staircase, offering him a cookie. Chad reluctantly took it before Troy spoke again. "What happened?"

"Status quo. The plan to get you and Gabriella outta the musical. I guess, I dunno, everything just blew up in our faces," Chad said shortly.

"Did you try talking to her?" he wondered.

"We talked today. A little," Chad admitted.

"What about?" Troy asked.

Chad thought back to lunch period earlier that day. "It was in the cafeteria. Right before you left…"

_Chad and Taylor were sitting at their usual tables with their friends. They weren't too far away but their backs were facing each other. Chad was fiddling with Jason's basketball and Taylor setting out her lunch. They looked up simultaneously when they saw Troy and Gabriella. Gabriella was walking across the cafeteria with her lunch tray; Troy was walking absent-mindedly in her direction, with nothing but a milk carton. Taylor invited Gabriella to sit with her and the Decathlon team, but Gabriella paid no attention. And when Troy opened his mouth to speak, Gabriella walked away from him like he'd never been there. Troy stood there in disbelief; he looked in Gabriella's direction but she already sat down at a random table, disconnected from the world. Troy headed out of the cafeteria, though Chad called out to him. Troy gave him one look, and then kept on walking. That was when Chad and Taylor exchanged glances; it was the first time their eyes had met in almost three days. Then, almost in perfect sync, they walked side by side to one of the empty benches. But they didn't look at each other after that. In fact, to have one of them look at the other was nothing but awkward. Eventually, Chad broke the silence._

"_You were right," he said quietly._

_Taylor merely nodded. "I know."_

"_I mean about everything. We never should've gone through with breaking up Troy and Gabriella," he said. Chad sighed and glanced in the direction of Gabriella's table. "She really is heartbroken isn't she?"_

"_It doesn't take rocket science to see that."_

"_Are you two still friends?"_

"_She's been coming to the Decathlon meetings and she says she's on the team, but I know she's not happy. With me or the team."_

"_It's not your fault."_

"_Yes it is. Just for going along with it."_

"_I wish I could take some of that guilt away."_

"_I'm sure you do."_

_Chad could hear the iciness in her voice. It wasn't anywhere near as bad as Sharpay the Ice Princess, but it was pretty cold. Taylor clearly didn't want to be sitting here talking to him. But even though they both knew what needed to be done, it was a talk that had to be done._

"_Troy isn't happy either," he said simply._

"_Obviously," Taylor scoffed quietly._

"_It wasn't like he was showing it in the locker room," Chad said. "But now…he doesn't wanna hang. He can't focus on the game. He doesn't wanna be around anyone. I get how you feel about Gabriella now. And you were right. I feel like garbage."_

"_Then the only way to clear our consciences is to tell the truth," she told him._

"_I know," Chad nodded. "They're gonna end up hating our guts."_

"_Charming," she responded sarcastically._

"_I mean Troy will," Chad corrected. "I haven't seen him that mad in ages. Gabriella doesn't seem like the type to hold a grudge."_

"_Sounds like it's a no brainer what to do then," Taylor said. She got up but couldn't go anywhere when she felt Chad's hand on hers._

"_Tay, wait…" he started._

_She immediately jerked her hand away. Chad shook his head and walked up to her._

"_I just wanted to say I'm sorry. Bout everything," he told her. "The things I said, the fight…I wasn't thinking and I just blabbed whatever came out of my mouth. And I'm sorry."_

"_There's nothing to apologize for," she answered simply. "You've already said everything you needed to."_

_Chad knew she didn't want to talk to him anymore; he could tell she was still mad. But he wasn't about to give up without a fight. "Taylor, please. Can't we just talk?"_

_She shook her head. "There's nothing left to say."_

_With that, Chad had no choice but to watch her disappear into the crowds._

"That's harsh, man." That was all Troy could saw after a moment of silence when Chad finished the story. What else could he say to his friend? Chad was broken up about it and he was about as happy as Troy was.

"Yeah but I deserved it. I was a jerk," Chad said.

Troy shrugged his shoulders. "Hey man, don't get beat up about it. C'mon, you always say there's plenty of fish in the sea."

"Yeah well how'd you feel if I told you that about Gabriella?" Chad replied. The response had come out harsher than Chad wanted, but it got the point across. Troy backed off and only nodded.

"Point taken."

"Sorry dude."

"It's fine."

Chad sighed. "We had really good things going. We had great girls. And I messed it up for the both of us."

"Yeah you kinda did," Troy nodded.

"Gee, thanks," he said sarcastically.

"Well sitting around up here moping isn't gonna do us any good," Troy decided. "I'm gonna go talk to Gabriella tonight. I'm gonna tell her I'm sorry for everything I said and I'm gonna see if by some stroke of luck she still wants to do the musical with me."

"You guys would be really great together," Chad said. "Go for it, Hoops."

Troy smiled lightly and nodded. "Thanks Chad. And you might wanna think about talking to Taylor again. See if you two can work it out."

"I don't know, man," Chad said doubtfully, "do you really think she'd wanna listen to me? She probably doesn't even wanna look at me."

"And for all I know Gabriella's gonna feel the same way about me," he answered. "But it's not gonna stop me from trying. So you should try, too."

"And what about us?" Chad asked curiously.

Troy shrugged. "Well if there's still a chance of us getting back with Gabriella and Taylor, then we'll be dating their best friend. So we're kinda stuck with each other," he answered with a chuckle.

Chad smiled lightly and gave a nod. "Thanks Hoops. Good luck tonight."

"You, too," Troy said. They fist bumped and then went their separate ways. Troy remained in the rooftop garden but Chad went downstairs. He stopped in the hallway and leaned against a set of lockers for a minute, thinking. He did have to try, didn't he? He wished he'd put more effort into talking with Taylor earlier but the cafeteria in the middle of lunch was not the right time. A scene would have been caused and more words would have been said. Things could have turned out so much worse. But Troy was right; Chad did have to try. If Chad really was going to lose Taylor then he wasn't going to lose her without knowing he did everything he could not to. Taking a deep breath, he pulled out his cell phone and searched for her name under contacts. He opened a new message and started typing.

_Tay,_

_I really need to see you. Can we talk tonight?_

_-Lunkhead_

He nervously tapped his foot waiting for a response. Chad didn't want to leave school without knowing he could see Taylor tonight. He kept thinking to himself, Just let her say yes. Please let her say yes. His thoughts were interrupted after five minutes of hoping when he heard his phone ping. He let out another breath before opening the message.

_Come at six._

It was just like Taylor to be short and candid when she was angry. Needless to say it was more than Chad could ask for. He was relieved for now. But he had one more chance to make things right and he couldn't afford another mess up.

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><p>I know, it's a shock. Two updates less than 24 hours apart from each other! I don't know, I was bored and had nothing else to do so I thought, Oh let me write another chapter. So i did. I considered working on the next chapter of Princess and the Frog, but this was easier for today. I'm not sure how many chapters are left with this story, but I'm already thinking of what story to start next. I know, not the best idea when there's still one story to finish. I'm weird. Anyway i know there was next to no Chaylor in this chapter but it was an important part of the story. Gabriella's reaction to the confession was clear in the movie but we never got to really see Troy's side. So I told it from Chad's point of view. Or, at least Chad's point of view in third person. And with Chad and Troy in the same situation it seemed easier for Troy to forgive Chad. But obviously we know everything ends up working out. Although this isn't about Troy and Chad, is it? Nope. So the next chapter will definitely be full on Chaylor! A usual thank you to everyone readingfollowing/reviewing/etc and i will return with more updates! Hope everyone is enjoying the rest of the summer, because i know i'm not! :P


	11. During Start of Something New Reprise

Disclaimer: I DO NOT own High School Musical.

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><p><strong> Chapter Eleven: During Start of Something New Reprise<strong>

Taylor couldn't remember the last time she couldn't focus on her schoolwork. It probably would have been so much easier if Chad didn't go and text her earlier that day. The point of them being broken up was supposed to be to not talk to each other. Taylor glanced across her room where she saw his basketball. She was sure that was the only reason he even contacted her. Chad was nothing without his basketball so without Taylor to focus on he probably wanted it back.

It, not her.

But why was Taylor even thinking about that? After their argument why would he want her back? She started their argument and she came off as a complete witch. She felt guilty about what happened with Gabriella and she let all her anger and frustration out on Chad. She'd spent so much time keeping her feelings bottled up, not wanting anyone to ever see her upset or hurting, and it came out at the worst possible time. But maybe it was for the best. She got what she deserved; Gabriella had her heart broken and now Taylor felt the same. It was a sign. Now she could focus on the Decathlon team like she was supposed to and things could go to the way they were supposed to be. Tonight would be the last night Taylor would willingly see Chad and then it would only be one more year before they never saw each other again.

As if Taylor could go the rest of her life without seeing Chad ever again. She'd seen him nearly ever day since second grade. Every day at school there he was playing with his basketball, getting in some kind of trouble or just plain goofing off. Even during the summer Taylor saw Chad constantly. He would be running down the street with his basketball buddies or hanging out at the park or somehow in front of her house. Taylor sighed; she should probably enjoy those little moments while they lasted because once Chad got his basketball back the only time she'd ever talk to Chad again is if they started another fight.

Taylor had to snap out of it; she couldn't spend all the time worrying about her and Chad. He would be here any minute and there was no point dwelling in the past or worrying about the future at this rate. Taylor headed downstairs and glanced out the window, keeping an eye out for Chad. She raised an eyebrow and then opened the door to see Chad standing outside, fixing his hair.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

Chad's arms dropped and he quickly turned to her. "Nothing," he said almost too quickly. He cleared his throat, "I mean, nothing."

Taylor looked at him doubtfully.

Chad looked around nervously before turning his attention back to Taylor. "So…can we talk?" he asked hopefully.

Yeah, talk. That's what he came here for. Taylor rolled her eyes and signaled for him to follow her upstairs. The best thing to do was to get this over with, and fast. She didn't want to drag this out anymore than it needed to. She didn't even bother to close the door when Chad got up there like she normally did; she just handed him his basketball.

"Ok, you can go now," she said.

Chad took the basketball but looked at her confused. "What?"

"That's what you came here for, your basketball," she responded.

"No, I actually came here to talk," Chad said.

"Chad, you can stop lying now," she insisted. "We're done here now, so can you please just go?"

"No."

"No?"

"No."

"No?"

"N...no."

Taylor rolled her eyes. "You're so stubborn," she muttered.

"Tay can we not fight now?" he asked.

"Chad just drop it," she insisted.

"I really need to talk to you."

"There's nothing to talk about."

"Yes there is."

Taylor groaned. She didn't want to deal with this anymore. Chad had barely been here five minutes and it was already getting unbearable. Why couldn't he just take a hint and get lost? They were done; there was nothing left for them to say to each other. And if she was going to have to fight with him it might as well be at school instead of in her own house where they spent their time doing so many better things. Like watching movies, laughing, cuddling, falling asleep during failed study sessions and kissing…. Taylor sure missed his kisses. She missed the way he wrapped his arms around her and held her close, living in the moment and capturing her lips in his…. But she had to snap out of it. How many days has it been since they broke up, two? She may have missed all those things about Chad but there was no way Taylor could let him know how much she really did miss him. Or how much she wanted to kiss him just to shut him up.

"Chad we've already said everything that needed to be said," she sighed. "So there's no point in dragging this out or lying anymore. We both know you only came here to get your basketball. You've got it now, so you can go. There's nothing stopping you."

"Yeah there is," Chad said. "About the fight-"

"I don't want to talk about it either," she interrupted. "What's done is done and we don't need to keep bringing it up. So we might as well let bygones by bygones and move on with our lives. I've got a competition to prepare for. You'd better go home and practice for your championship."

"I don't wanna go home and practice," Chad replied.

"I think you should," Taylor said.

"Really? You think you know what I should be doing right now?" he asked.

"I think I know what you would rather be doing right now," Taylor corrected.

"I don't think you do know," Chad said.

"Really?" she replied doubtfully.

"Really," he nodded.

"Alright then Chad, tell me, what do you think?" Taylor questioned.

"I'll tell you what I think. _This_ is what I think," he replied. He tossed the basketball out the window. He didn't miss a step or give it another second; he just threw it out the window the second he finished his sentence.

Taylor looked at him shocked. She couldn't believe her eyes. He actually dropped his basketball two stories for her.

"I don't care if we're fighting. I almost don't care if we're not even talking," Chad said, "but I'd rather be here with you than at home with my basketball. The fight was stupid and we both screwed up. Heck, I know how much I screwed up. I didn't get why you were upset and I let our argument over this whole status quo thing get the better of me. And I'm sorry. But I don't wanna be broken up."

"Chad, I…" Taylor's voice trailed off. She nearly felt speechless. What was someone supposed to say when the person who's head they were just biting off two days ago apologized and tried to prove that a person was more important than a sport? And it was really hard for her to not fall for his voice. Or into his eyes. But she had to maintain her ground. Taylor kept telling herself that them breaking up was for the best. She spent the past two days telling herself that; but it was difficult to believe when she spent so much time with him. "I really think we're better off broken up. Look at all the trouble with the status quo now. Imagine how much worse it'd be if people found out about us, too," she forced out.

"That's the thing," he admitted. He ran his fingers through his hair before meeting her eyes. "I don't care anymore if anyone knows about us. I don't care what anyone thinks…or thought…of us being together. I already told Troy, Jason and Zeke. And if they tell everyone else then let them tell everyone else."

"You're not serious," she said. For as long as the two of them had been together, Taylor hadn't once heard Chad insist that he wants people to know about them. Sure, he asked the occasional 'what if's' and thought about letting people know, but he never went through with it. This was the first time she was hearing him be so nonchalant about outing them.

"I'm really serious," Chad nodded. He took a step closer to her, "Walk with me to school tomorrow."

"What?" she asked, still taken aback.

"Walk with me to school tomorrow. Where everyone can see us," he said. "And let them think whatever they want and say whatever they want."

"Chad…" He was making it more impossible for her to say no to him.

"Tay," he replied.

She shook her head. "I don't know," she said softly. It was probably the closest she was going to get to say no.

"One kiss then," he said.

"What?" Taylor raised an eyebrow.

Chad let out a breath, "One kiss. So then that way you can tell me to my face if you don't feel anything at all and I'll drop it and we'll stay broken up."

Taylor bit her bottom lip, "I don't think so."

"Why? It's not like it's a lot to as for," Chad responded. "…Is it?"

"No, that's not it," she replied.

"Then what is? All I'm asking for is one kiss."

"No."

"Just so I know you can say to my face that it's really over."

"Chad, no."

"Well why not then?"

"Because I won't be able to lie about it!" she blurt out.

For a moment Chad stared at her wide-eyed. She couldn't read his expression, but all Taylor could tell for sure was that he was shocked.

She sighed. "I know we should be broken up. But if we kiss then I'm not going to be able to say I don't feel anything. Because I can't lie about something like that."

Her answer was short and simple; Taylor hoped that it'd be enough for Chad. Taylor was always stubborn and she wouldn't admit to her feelings. But Chad always knew how to push her. He knew how to make her talk and what to say to change her mind. So Taylor wondered if he was going to convince her to say anything else or if she had gotten through to him. It didn't matter how much they argued or if they said they were broken up; it didn't change the way she felt about him.

But it didn't look like it took much for Chad to understand. After a moment of letting it sink in, he filled the remaining space between them and kissed her. It didn't take long for Taylor to return the kiss and wrap her arms around his neck. Chad pulled her close and held her tight in his arms. They slowly broke the kiss and just looked into each other's eyes. There didn't seem to be anything else they needed to say; the kiss pretty much said it all.

"So you mentioned something about walking with me to school tomorrow?" Taylor asked with a smile.

Chad let out a chuckle and nodded before kissing her again, this time with more passion. That was how their relationship worked sometimes; they could have a fight about anything and then make it better with one kiss. And just when neither of them thought there was anything left to say, one of them would say something that would put a smile on the other's face. And before they knew it all their thoughts about their friends, the drama and the status quo went right out the window with Chad's basketball.

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><p>So i know it's been about 2 weeks since i updated this story. I was planning on updating sooner but after i started the chapter i had other stuff to do. I tried last week to finish it but it wasn't turning out good at all. So tonight i buckled down and focused and got this chapter done! Hopefully it came out decently enough. I planned some time ago how i wanted this to turn out, and of course by now i'd forgotten pretty much all of it save for Chad throwing his basketball out the window. And i was also struggling with how to end it. But don't worry, the story's not finished yet! Everyone still has to all be in it together and get Troy and Gabriella to their callback after Sharpay gets Darbus to change the date of the callbacks to same day as the championship and Decathlon...and i totally just spoiled the ending! :O Oh well. XD On a side note, I've also updated my list of stories on my profile. Some ideas are deleted and some are still there and i marked off the ones i know i wanna do. I've already started on one of the ideas but i'm debating on when to put the first chapter up. And yes, they are all Chaylor, in case you were wondering. ;)<p> 


	12. Before GameCallbacksDecathlon Day

At long last, an update to something! It's a long story and I'll try my best to explain everything as shortly as possible in the a/n at the bottom. I know you guys have been waiting a while for this, so I'm not gonna keep you waiting up here. Just read and enjoy! And yes, reviews and such are enjoyed. :)  
>Disclaimer: I do not own High School Musical.<p>

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><p><strong> Chapter Twelve: Before GameCallbacks/Decathlon Day**

"So that takes care of the Decathlon competition, but what about the game?" Troy asked.

Troy had just proposed to their group of friends that morning about getting into the musical. After finding out from the show's composer Kelsi Neilson that Sharpay had changed the date of the callbacks to conflict with the championship game and Scholastic Decathlon, everyone was really mad. Things had been going well the past couple of days; not only were the jocks and nerds balancing their friends' rehearsal schedules with their meetings, but little by little the school was finding out about Troy and Gabriella going through with the callbacks. Suddenly word got out to Sharpay and she was trying to change everything back to the way it was. Surely if she could make it so Troy and Gabriella couldn't go to the callbacks then she and Ryan would get the leads and the status quo would fall back into place. Now the jocks and nerds were working together to formulate a strategy against the ice princess. Troy, Gabriella, Chad and Taylor were at Gabriella's house working through every step of their plan.

So far they had the Decathlon competition figured out. Chad remembered the new program Taylor had installed on her computer – if she could connect to something via WiFi within a few feet she could then manipulate it. The girls deducted that during the chemistry portion of the competition they could cause a chemical reaction harmless enough to not do any damage yet dangerous enough to evacuate the room; thus allowing Gabriella to make a break for the auditorium. Needless to say Troy was shocked that Chad was the one who sort of came up with the idea. Taylor, on the other hand, liked showing off her boyfriend in more than one way.

"What do we have to do to get everyone out of the gym?" Gabriella inquired.

"We don't need to get everyone outta the gym. Just Troy," Chad stated.

"But if everyone watching he game sees me make a break for it, they're gonna get suspicious," Troy pointed out.

Taylor shrugged her shoulders. "We're going to have to get the gym evacuated, same as with the Decathlon competition."

"Maybe set off the fire alarm?" Chad asked.

"No good. That'll just get the whole school out," Gabriella shook her head. "We just need to get Troy to the auditorium."

"Maybe if we made everyone think something was wrong with the gym, that would get everyone out of there," Taylor suggested.

"Would messing with the lights do any good?" Troy wondered.

Gabriella shook her head. "Not dangerous enough. We need to take it a step further."

"How?" Troy asked.

"We could mess with the scoreboard," she replied. "The game can't continue if everyone thinks something's going on with the scoreboard."

"And while everyone's trying to figure out what's going on, Troy can make a break for the auditorium!" Chad grinned.

Gabriella turned to Taylor. "Think you can hack into the school's computer system to do it?"

"I'll need a couple of hours beforehand to make sure I can get passed the security system. But I'll have it figured out in time," Taylor nodded.

"What time is this gonna go down?" Chad asked.

"Everything starts at 3:30. We should make it happen as fast as possible," Gabriella answered. "Maybe after we answer the first question we can start setting everything up."

"When's that?" Troy wondered.

Gabriella and Taylor thought for a minute. They glanced at each other, both estimating roughly five minutes into the competition. "Think 3:35 is too early?" Gabriella asked.

Taylor shook her head. "There's no such thing as too soon in a time like this. Ryan and Sharpay are probably going to have their callback audition as soon as possible. We'll have to work quickly to get you guys there right after they go on."

"It's not gonna be very far into the game. Is it enough time to make it look convincing, like we're playing for real?" Chad asked.

"We're gonna have to make it work, man," Troy said. "I'll tell Zeke and Jason the plan tomorrow but we can't tell anyone else on the team."

"And I'll tell Kelsi when I meet her for rehearsals during free period," Gabriella said. "Should we let anyone in the Decathlon know?"

Taylor shook her head. "Too risky. Someone might blow our cover. This has to be kept on the down-low."

"So it sounds like we're all set then," Troy said. He playfully smirked at Chad and Taylor. "Isn't it so much better to use your powers for good instead of evil now?"

Chad groaned. "Dude, we said we were sorry. Like fifty times."

"Twenty-two," Gabriella corrected.

"Whatever," Chad responded. "But it wasn't even all us. It was pretty much Zeke's plan. We just did all the work."

"Still you guys made a pretty good team," he replied. "No wonder you two got together."

"Yeah, how did that happen anyway?" Gabriella wondered.

"We got locked in a building," Taylor answered somewhat sheepishly.

"No way," Troy laughed. "How'd you manage to pull that off?"

Taylor held her hands up defensively. "Hey, I was just in the bathroom. And it's a little hard to get out of there when you can't open the door."

"My plan was a little more devious," Chad laughed, causing Taylor to playfully hit his arm. "I was at the store with Jason and he kind of ended up daring me to spend the night there. I dared him to do it, too, but he just laughed and said he wasn't stupid. So I went through with it alone."

"So then what happened?" Gabriella asked.

Chad and Taylor smiled at the memory. Even though it was three years ago, sometimes to them it felt like it was just yesterday.

_Chad had just sneaked out of one of the garbage cans and began wandering about the store. He didn't see what the big deal was; the only difference was that it was dark. He could totally survive the night in there. He walked down a few aisles, picking up a basketball and dribbling it along the way, until he heard a banging sound of some sort. He stopped and listened; some sort of muffled voice followed the banging. He followed the sound to the girls' bathroom. He raised an eyebrow, thinking that the voice sounded familiar. All he knew was, he'd better not be getting in trouble for sticking around. He reached for the knob and turned it, causing Taylor to fall out and onto the floor. Chad immediately flinched and jerked back._

"_McKessie? The hell are you doing in here?" he questioned._

_Taylor glared up at him before rising to her feet. "And to think I was just about to thank you for letting me out of there. I don't think so now."_

"_Yeah well if I knew it was you in there I would've left you locked in!" he retorted._

_Taylor shook her head and started walking away. "You know what, I don't have time for this. I have a ton of homework to do, so out of the way. I'm getting out of here."_

_Chad scoffed. "Hate to break it to you, nerd, but you're stuck here."_

_She stopped walking and turned to him, quirking an eyebrow. "What?"_

"_You heard me. We're stuck here," he replied. He shook his head adding, "When I took that dare to spend the night in here, having you here was not what I had in mind."_

_Taylor rolled her eyes. "Sorry I had to come and cramp your style."_

"_Just stay outta my way and we'll be good," he answered._

_She folded her arms. "Then you stay out of my way and we'll be just fine."_

"_Fine."_

"_Fine."_

"_Good."_

"_Good."_

_Chad shook his head, causing his massive curls to swing in his face. "Do you have to repeat everything I say?"_

_Taylor smirked. "Does it bug you?"_

"_No," Chad lied rolling his eyes._

"_No," she repeated with a cocky grin._

"_I get it."_

"_I get it."_

"_Stop that."_

"_Stop that."_

"_You're such a nerd."_

"_You're such a nerd."_

"_I am not a nerd!" Chad snapped. He paused and thought for a second. Oh wait…she was repeating what he said. He called her a nerd so she called him a nerd. Dang, he walked right into that one. He stood up straight and glared at her. "Alright McKessie, fine. You win one round. But this night is far from over."_

_She placed her hands on her hips. "Bring it on."_

_That was when the plotting began. They may have gone their separate directions for the time being, but every chance they got, one of them found a way to annoy the other. For a couple of thirteen or fourteen year olds stuck somewhere with nothing to do except annoy the one person who irked them the most, it was pretty childish. When Taylor went to look at the folders and notebooks, Chad was right around the corner chugging spitballs in her direction. When Chad went to go take one of the bicycles for a joy ride around the store, Taylor set up an obstacle course for him. And when Taylor looked through some books, Chad had an arsenal of baseballs, golf balls and tennis balls thrown at her, knocking every book she picked up right out of her hands. The back-and-forth went on for a couple of hours at most, but it was safe to say that the two of them agreed it was a good way to pass the time. But it was only a matter of time before one of them found something to complain about._

"_I'm hungry," Chad moaned leaning up against one of the walls._

_Taylor walked past him with a granola bar in her hand. "Sucks for you," she grinned before taking a bite out of it._

_Chad looked at her and raised an eyebrow. "Where'd you get that?"_

_She shrugged her shoulders. "Grocery section, where else?" she responded as-a-matter-of-factly._

"_Awesome, I'm getting some dinner," Chad said jumping to his feet._

"_Good luck getting any without money," Taylor said._

_He rolled his eyes and turned to her. "And why would I need to worry about paying?"_

"_If you don't leave money you might as well be stealing," she told him._

"_I'll show you stealing," Chad muttered. He searched through his pockets for some loose change, but had no luck. He groaned, which caused Taylor to smirk. Chad noticed that and shook his head. "I know what you're thinking," he told her. "Nice try McKessie but I'm not letting you get to me. I can last without food till tomorrow."_

"_You sure about that?" she questioned when Chad's stomach growled. As much as she enjoyed watching Chad torture himself with the thought of food and knowing he couldn't have any, she kind of hated it. It wasn't that she was worried about Chad or anything; they were enemies so she was far from caring about him. But this kind of torture just wasn't the same. Somehow, just somehow, she liked it better when she was annoying Chad. Seeing something else bother him and knowing she wasn't the cause of it just wasn't the same. Besides it probably wouldn't be fair for her to eat right in front of his face. Sighing, she reached into her back pocket and pulled out a couple of dollars. She walked over to him and placed the money in his hand._

_Chad looked at her with a quirked eyebrow. "What's this for?"_

"_I know I'm going to regret this later," she sighed, "but I'm not going to let you starve. So stop complaining and go get yourself some food. Don't say I never did anything nice for you." With that, she headed in the opposite direction of the store, leaving Chad to sort of stare in her direction. _

"_Great," he mumbled heading towards the snacks, "now I owe her one."_

_A short time later Chad was wandering around the hardware section. It was one of the only places he could think of to avoid Taylor. Yet somehow there she was, looking through the loose screwdrivers. Rolling his eyes, he headed over to her._

"_Just can't stay away from me, can you?" he smirked._

_Taylor scoffed. "Please Danforth, I didn't come here thinking I would find you."_

"_You expect to pick some other guy up in here?" he joked._

_She picked up one of the screwdrivers and turned to him. "Look lunkhead maybe you don't want to get out of here, but I do. So I'm doing something about it."_

"_Gonna pick the lock to the front door with that puny thing?" he asked._

_She pointed at one of the cameras on the wall. When Chad raised an eyebrow from confusion – which she should have known to expect – she explained. "Haven't you wondered why no one came here looking for us or why there aren't any security guards? Usually at night these stores always have someone sitting at the cameras watching video footage of the store. They should have seen us wandering around by now."_

"_They probably just fell asleep. Chillax," he shrugged his shoulders._

_Taylor folded her arms. "Well on the off chance someone's not asleep, I'm going with the theory that some, or maybe all, of the cameras here are busted. So I'm going to fix that one and stay over here until someone gets the message."_

"_It's practically on the ceiling. How do you expect to get up there?" he asked._

_Taylor led him to the back wall where there was a ladder leaning up against it. "All I have to do is move this close enough to the camera, climb up, open the camera and rewire the circuitry. If it really is busted I'll climb down and move to another one."_

"_C'mon, that's like tight security tech stuff up there. Do you really think you can figure it out?" Chad replied._

"_If I can hack into the school's computer system and change the lunch from Tuna Trail Mix Tuesday to Turkey and Tater Tots Tuesday, I can rework a security cam," Taylor said._

_Chad stared at her wide-eyed. "That was you? I thought it was the hot new lunch lady that did that. Man, that's off the hook!"_

_Taylor smirked. "Impressed much?"_

_Chad quickly cleared his throat and tucked his hands into his jeans pockets. "No…" he lied. "I just…didn't think you had the guts to break school rules."_

"_Yeah well…" she paused briefly trying to think of an excuse. "I got sick of tuna every Tuesday."_

"_Why can't you just bring lunch?" he shrugged his shoulders._

"_Tell that to my big sister," she rolled her eyes._

"_Then tell your mom and dad to. What's the big deal?" Chad asked._

"_Why don't you just drop it? It's none of your business!" she snapped to him._

_Chad took a step back and paused for a moment. "You know what, forget I even asked. Go do your techy thingy and leave me outta it!" he snapped. He pointed to the ladder and added, "And if you fall off that thing don't expect me to come to your rescue!" He turned around and started storming away._

_Taylor groaned and mentally scolded herself. "Wait," she said causing Chad to stop. She didn't know why she cared or why she felt bad about yelling at him. They weren't friends. They didn't like each other. Yet somehow she still felt guilty. Taylor let out a sigh before somewhat reluctantly saying, "I'm sorry."_

_Chad turned around to her. "What was up with the snapping? I mean, you've snapped at me in school before. But we weren't exactly fighting now."_

"_I was just apologizing. It doesn't mean I have to tell you my life story," Taylor responded. She turned to the ladder and moved it a little closer to the camera._

"_I was just asking. Didn't realize it was such a sore spot," Chad replied._

"_Well it is, so drop it," she said. She got on the ladder and proceeded to climb. She stopped when she saw Chad on the other side, looking at her through the steps. "What?"_

"_Just…this thing…it kinda looked unsteady," Chad lied._

_Taylor rolled her eyes and started climbing again._

"_Wait," Chad sighed._

_She moved down a couple of steps and quirked an eyebrow at him._

"_If you wanna talk...you know…I'm kinda here," he said._

"_Like you can really go anywhere," she stated._

"_Like there's anyone else you could talk to," he smirked._

"_You're so…"_

"_Charming?"_

"_I was going to say irritating."_

"_I know. Irritatingly charming."_

"_What does your girlfriend think of that?"_

"_I don't have a girlfriend."_

"_Really?"_

_Chad let out a chuckle. "Don't get your hopes up."_

"_Why would I?" Taylor raised an eyebrow._

"_Oh you know. Just cause you got a cute guy standing inches away from your face," he shrugged his shoulders._

_Taylor smirked playfully. "If I didn't know better, Danforth, I'd say you were trying to hit on me."_

_Chad smirked right back at her but didn't answer. "So you ready to tell me what got under your skin now? You know, besides me."_

_Taylor held in a sigh and rolled her eyes. She thought for a minute and then looked at him. She paused a little longer and then let out the sigh. "The real reason I changed the lunch menu was because of my parents. They're always out at work or away for business and I wanted to do something to get their attention."_

_Chad raised an eyebrow and shrugged his shoulders. "Why can't you just do your usual nerd thing?"_

_Taylor rolled her eyes. "Like they pay attention to that. If my grades and academic awards didn't get their attention, I thought doing something bad would."_

"_Like changing lunch for one day?" he inquired._

"_I thought someone would go looking for answers. And when they found out it was me I would get in trouble for hacking into the school computer system. But that didn't happen and once again my parents paid no attention to me," Taylor explained._

_Chad scrunched his nose. Suddenly it made sense why Taylor picked fights with him. He always said something to her and she would fight back as a way of acting out. He knew she was feisty and opinionated but he never would have guessed it was to get attention from her parents. Or, really anyone. She wasn't even that bad. Well, maybe not really. "That's harsh," he said, unsure of what else to say._

"_Yeah," she nodded simply. "Well, now you know."_

_Chad shrugged his shoulders. "Aren't you glad you talked to someone now?"_

_Taylor smiled slightly, but quickly covered it up. It actually did feel good to get that off her chest. But she didn't think that Chad of all people would end up being the person she talked to. And she certainly didn't want Chad knowing that. If it started to look like she was going easy on him, he could misinterpret that as something else. And she wasn't about to let that happen. Was she? No, not a chance. "You'd better get out of here. If I fix the camera, you don't want to be in its sight. You've got a bet to win."_

"_Yeah. Guess I do," Chad nodded, disappointment almost in his voice. "Hey, careful up there. Looks like a dirty job."_

"_Someone's gotta do it," she pointed out._

_Chad nodded. "See you in school then." He stepped away from the ladder and started walking away again._

_Taylor reached for the next step, then stopped her arm in midair and put it down. She glanced in the direction Chad was heading. She hated to admit it – she really did – but he was pretty sweet for listening and actually pretending to care. "Hey Chad?"_

_At the sound of her voice, Chad turned around to glance at her._

"_Thanks. For listening," Taylor said._

"_No problem," he nodded. He saw her start to climb, but she didn't get very far before he got her attention. "Hey McKes…Taylor. For the record, your folks don't know what they're missing. Their loss."_

_Taylor felt her face going a little red, but she tried her best to hide it. "You're being awfully friendly."_

"_Hey, I owed you one," he shrugged his shoulders. He scratched the back of his head. "You know…if you really wanted to get your parents' attention, you could just stay here all night."_

_She raised an eyebrow curiously. "Without them knowing?"_

"_Yeah," he nodded. "Imagine how pissed they'll be when they didn't find you sooner."_

"_Wait a minute," she smirked playfully, "how do I know you just don't want to get lonely in here?"_

_He shrugged his shoulders and looked away, putting his hands in his pockets. "I won't get lonely," he mumbled._

_Taylor giggled._

_Chad smiled. "Knew I'd get something outta you. So, what do you say? Gonna stick around a while?" He stepped a little closer and held out his hand to her._

_Taylor looked up at the camera, then at Chad. She let a smile grow on her face and then took his hand. He helped her off the ladder and she dropped the screwdriver._

"_So where should we start?" he wondered._

"_Let's start with this," she decided and then pecked his cheek. "That was for…well…listening to me."_

_Chad felt himself freeze and his face burn up. He wasn't sure what he expected less, the kiss or the feelings that came from it. Not that Chad hadn't gotten a kiss before…well, he sort of did. But he never felt anything like from that one. It felt…nice. And he certainly didn't expect to like a kiss from Taylor. _

_Taylor took a step back and blushed a little. What did she just do? "So...uh…let's get going." She started walking away, but quickly felt Chad grab onto her arm. The next thing she knew, she was spun around to facing him and his lips were on hers. It was brief, but it was…well, nice. _

_Chad stepped back a little when he pulled away. He looked away, kind of embarrassed at what he just did. He didn't even know what came over him. "Sorry," he apologized._

_There was a brief awkward silence. Then Taylor smiled at him._

"_Don't be."_

"Aw, that's so sweet," Gabriella smiled when they finished the story.

"So did you win the bet?" Troy wondered.

Chad chuckled. "Really? That's what you're worried about?"

"Hey man, just curious," he laughed.

"Well…" Chad's voice started out really peppy, then it lowered. "Not exactly. We got caught at midnight."

"Ouch," Troy scrunched his nose.

"So what happened?" Gabriella wondered.

"I had to miss out on basketball practice for a week. And do extra chores around the house. And be home by six," Chad answered.

"I was grounded for two weeks," Taylor added. "But the looks on my parents' faces when they finally found us was totally worth it. Not like much has changed since then, but at least once in a while I don't have to pack my own lunch or take five dollars off the counter."

"Really? That's what meant more? Parent-made lunches once in a while?" Chad teased.

Taylor smiled and rolled her eyes. "Ok, ok. It was the second best thing to come out of it." She took out her phone when she felt it vibrate. "Speaking of my parents, I should get home to them," she said after reading the screen and putting it away.

"Well at least we came up with a plan for tomorrow," Gabriella said.

"And we found out Chad and Taylor's big secret," Troy teased with a chuckle.

"Hilarious man," Chad rolled his eyes. He turned to Taylor and helped her off Gabriella's bed. "Come on, I'll walk you home." They exchanged hugs with their friends and then left Gabriella's house.

"So how did it feel?" Taylor asked while they walked. "You know, to finally get the whole story out there?"

Chad thought for a minute. "Kinda cheesy," he admitted. "It sounds like something off a kids' show."

"But it is what happened," she reminded him.

"You kidding?" he smiled. "I was there. Not like I could forget something like my first kiss."

"Really?" she asked with a smirk.

"Hey don't go rubbing it in or anything," he said playfully nudging her. "You got lucky."

Normally they would start playfully fighting or teasing each other. But this time, Taylor smiled and nodded. "Yeah. I did."

"Me, too," Chad smiled. They stopped in front of Taylor's house and he turned to her. "So I'll see you in homeroom tomorrow?"

"Of course," she nodded.

"Cool. Night Tay," he said kissing her.

Taylor kissed him back. They pulled away moments later and she glanced towards her house, then at Chad. "Hey…do you want to come in?"

Chad raised an eyebrow. "But aren't your parents home?"

"Yeah…that's kind of the point," she admitted. "Do you think you'd want to meet them? Right now?"

Chad didn't think he even saw Taylor's parents before. So meeting them was kind of a big deal. It freaked him out, he wasn't going to lie. But everyone else had already found out about them. Troy, Gabriella, Jason, Zeke, East High…the only people left to find out were their parents. Would he make a good impression? With how strict they sounded would they think he was good enough for Taylor? Or with how often they were gone would they even care? But if Taylor wanted him to meet them, if she thought it was time…she was right about how nice it would feel to get their relationship out in the open; she was right about everything. So why shouldn't she be right about this? "Yeah. Yeah, definitely," he nodded. He looked at her house, then back at Taylor. "Give me a minute?"

"Ok," she nodded. She gave him a kiss on the cheek, then headed to her porch and opened the door.

In the meantime, Chad took out his cell phone and started texting Troy. _Hey dude, what do you think about giving the girls something tomorrow?_

He anxiously waited for about a minute for Troy to text back. Gabriella and Taylor were going through a lot of trouble to get tomorrow's plan in motion. They were pretty much throwing away their decathlon competition just like Chad and Troy were throwing away their basketball game. He knew it meant a lot to them, especially Taylor. They worked so hard to get to the finals or championship or whatever it was called after so many losses the last few years. And now Taylor was introducing him to his parents, which was a pretty big deal. They deserved something nice for everything they were doing and know how much they meant to Chad and Troy. The second his phone buzzed, Chad opened it to see Troy's message.

_What did you have in mind?_

* * *

><p>First of all, there are actually legit reasons why I haven't updated in a while. Particularly in the last two weeks. A couple weeks ago, my grandma fell and fractured her pelvis so she's been out of the house since then. Shs's doing fine, she's at rehab now. But combine that with my not feeling well in the form of an upset stomach and it's not a good combination. Yeah, my stomach's been way off for two weeks. I thought after a few days I figured out why it hurt, but then nothing really changed. It kept hurting and I literally had no appetite. And for a five foot one person who's already underweight that's not good. Don't get me wrong, I've been eating. Heck, the past two weeks when I haven't been hungry for more than one snack or meal I've forced myself to eat. And it hasn't only affected my writing. It's put off my job hunt and my focus on finishing the second Stay Strong portrait I've been working on. But I'm fine, I'm alive, and survived the snowstorm that was apparently named Nemo. Now that that's out of the way, this night was probably the fourth or fifth time I added to this chapter. It started off slow the first couple of times, the third time I got significant more work done. Last time I started working on the flashback, and tonight I finally finished the whole thing. I planned for a while how the flashback would go and how the chapter would end. I've had a few different ideas, but obviously you see the final result. The whole Chad texting Troy about doing something for the girls - which I'm sure you guys know what that something is in the movie - I added that in last second. But this chapter, I wanted to give you guys an idea of how Chaylor might have started and the little things that they did for each other made them care. :) I'd also like to point out that after finally spotting the continuity issue in how long they were really together for, I have fixed that in the first chapter so now it says straight through that they were together for three years. I hope you guys enjoyed this latest chapter and got your Chaylor fix for a while, cause I know I always need one. ;)<p> 


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